Quotes of the Year 2019

On matches…

“I’d give myself an A+ for my warm-up.”
- Danielle Collins on her preparations for her fourth-round Australian Open victory over Angelique Kerber.

“Today I kind of felt like a challenger. I’m still kind of new at this.”
- WTA World No.1 and two-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka after coming from a set and a break down to beat Victoria Azarenka at Roland Garros.

"It's literally irrelevant. Draws are meant to fall apart."
- Sloane Stephens, on the relevance of being the highest seed remaining in the bottom half of the French Open draw ahead of the quarterfinals.

“People outside of tennis they look at the rankings, like: ‘Oh, she's supposed to win this match because the other girl is ranked 5 million hundred or whatever.’
- Naomi Osaka after losing to Katerina Siniakova in the third round at Roland Garros.

“When I'm complaining on the court, it's in Japanese because I don't want people to understand the English.”
- Naomi Osaka on the benefits of being multilingual.

“I said to my team, I was just worried about falling over. And I can successfully say that we got to the end of the clay court season and I did not fall over once!”
- Surprise Roland Garros champion Ashley Barty on achieving her primary aim for 2019 on the dirt.

“She can make you feel ugly.”
- Karolina Pliskova after successfully untangling herself to beat Hsieh Su-wei in the third round of Wimbledon.

“My stomach was not very well before the match.”
- Simona Halep makes a frank admission during her Wimbledon victory speech.

“We had to be superheroes out there.”
- Venus Williams on beating Kiki Bertens in the heat of Cincinnati.

“I don’t want to sound like cocky or anything, but I kind of forgot how it feels to lose.”
- Bianca Andreescu after returning from injury to beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich in Beijing.

On Serena…

“I felt like I had been hit by a train.”
- Simona Halep reflects on losing the first set 6-1 to Serena Williams in Australia.

“It is a lot to carry, but so is being Serena Williams.”
- Serena Williams, on her custom Nike kit which bore the words ‘Champion’, ‘Queen’, ‘Mother’, and ‘Goddess’ in French.

On Coco…

“I hope Beyoncé saw that!”
- Coco Gauff after her breakthrough Wimbledon third-round win over Polona Hercog.

“I can't buy a car because I can't drive. I hate spending money.”
- Gauff is set to have problems spending her £176,000 Wimbledon prize money.

“I didn't tell Mom, but she's going to go viral. She's going to be a meme and I'm going to retweet it.”
- Gauff revels in an unexpected side effect of her newfound fame at Wimbledon.

“My dad told me when I got in, before the first main-draw match, he said, ‘You can’t lose twice in the same tournament!’”
- Coco Gauff after winning Linz as a lucky loser.

On the difficulties of life on Tour…

“Today’s my birthday, and I was playing so late. I had not time to find my gift so I thought: ‘I better win, so I don’t need to run out and buy a gift tomorrow.’”
- Hsieh Su-wei celebrates her birthday by moving into the Auckland semifinals.

“I'm providing a lot of heart attacks on the court. Now I'm going to provide heart attacks off the court.”
- Belinda Bencic outlines her skydiving plans after her stunning victory in Dubai to an uncertain media.

"I'm told that I give out the worst hugs."
- Sloane Stephens after coming from a set down to beat Ajla Tomljanovic and reach the quarterfinals in Charleston.

“I have no idea right now of the time or what's happening.”
- Victoria Azarenka suffers from jetlag after flying from a Fed Cup tie in Australia to Stuttgart.

“You know how you can speak things into existence? I feel like I do that a lot. So I’m never going to open my mouth.”
- Naomi Osaka regrets discussing her injury problems before Stuttgart as she announces her withdrawal, having reached the semis.

“From 1 to 10, I’m like at 100 right now.”
- Osaka on her French Open disappointment.

On coaching…

“…”
- Dmitry Tursunov, Aryna Sabalenka’s coach, gives his charge an awkward 90 seconds as he stayed silent after being called to court for guidance during Indian Wells.

"I have a really good b******t radar, so if it doesn't sound right, it's probably not right!"
- Sloane Stephens, on how she determines whether a prospective coach knows what they're talking about or not.

“Be a ******* backboard.”
- Magda Linette’s coach Izo Zunic gives the Pole some valuable advice in Jiangxi.

“Last time I killed you and I can’t wait to kill you again.”
- No, it’s not a zombie, it’s Simona Halep welcoming back Darren Cahill to her coaching team in 2020 in her own special way.

On physique…

“Have you seen the size of her legs!? It’s not just about height!”
- Eugenie Bouchard doesn’t see Simona Halep’s lack of height as a big disadvantage.

“I don’t feel pressure at all. I am just feeling the power. This power of youth is helpful for me. Especially when you are playing women of over 30 years of age, you just know that you are fresher. I am 17 and I can run five sets and go and practice after that for two hours. I know my opponent will get tired sooner.”
- Anastasia Potapova tells Reuters that she can run and run and run and run.

“Well, they said for now two to three weeks off, which means no tennis, of course, because it's my left forearm. Maybe I can play righty!?”
- Petra Kvitova, on whether she'll be ready for Wimbledon after being forced to withdraw from Roland Garros with injury ahead of her first-round match.

On nutrition…

“Last year, I had too much risotto with mushrooms before the match but this year I didn’t!”
- Aliaksandra Sasnovich after gaining revenge on Elina Svitolina at the Brisbane International, where she had lost the 2018 final.

On life…

“Every time someone comes for a hug, I'm very confused. I'm told that I give out the worst hugs, too. It's not necessarily the best situation for me to try to hug someone unless I really know them. And I don't really know anybody, so...”
- Naomi Osaka on why she prefers handshakes to hugs.

“I definitely need a smaller car with the reversing camera because I need all the help I can get with parking.”
- Kimberly Birrell gets ready to spend her Aussie Open winnings on some new wheels.

“I think I’ve seen Frozen 3,000 times and then I’ve seen Beauty and The Beast 4,000. And it’s just like I can recite it, I know all the songs, it’s like: ‘Oh my gosh.’”
- Serena Williams wishes Olympia would change up her movie choices.

Interviewer: “Does he have control of the remote?”
Johanna Konta: “If he had thumbs he would…”
- The British No.1 on the hold her dog, Bono, has on her.

“Yeah, I got the Rolie on my wrist. It’s sick, it’s really cool, I’m not going to lie.”
- Bianca Andreescu plays it cool over her new sponsorship deal with a popular watch manufacturer.