47 Quotes by Rod Laver

Right through school, I was a handy cricketer, a batsman and a left-arm spinner who bowled leg breaks.

I wasn't embarrassed that I'd had a stroke, but I just didn't want people to think I was milking it or looking for sympathy. It happened, and I dealt with it. Afterwards, I tried to do what I could for other people who had strokes, speaking at hospitals that treated stroke victims.

Yes, I hit with heavy top-spin, but when you look at the little rackets I played with, the Maxply Dunlop, you had to hit the very centre all the time. I had my share of miss-hits.

We were pretty darn good - fit and ready to play - but today's level is different. Those ground strokes are ever so much faster, coming back at you at a pretty good speed. Footwork-wise, you've got to be ready to hit that next shot. It's a tough time.

Each match is a huge effort from a physical point of view. You can only hit so many balls before your elbow or some part of your body is going to say, 'Hey, don't do that to me.'

As a tennis player, you have a record, and that is what counts. I feel like I enjoyed myself, and I'm proud of what I accomplished.

Funny thing about the volatile and biased French crowds. While they'd prefer to be cheering a countryman and giving his foreign opponent merry hell, if there was no Frenchman in the game, they'd always support a Continental player over an Englishman, an American, or an Australian.

It can be a daunting prospect for any player to know that his opponent will never, ever quit.

Tennis was a big part of my life from as far back as I can remember.