“I heard endless conversations between my parents when I was going to sleep about how we would survive, how we would continue. All of them were about trying to make me better.”

When I make a commitment I stick to it.

When I make commitments I like to stick to them, especially when I’m giving back to kids. Just giving them an example of what they can achieve. I love giving back to kids. It’s fantastic.

The more matches I play, the more confident I get.

As someone who spends a lot of her time on the road, you have to look stylish but comfortable as I’m always in motion. Either traveling for my job, for pleasure, or managing the hectic pace of the modern day.

I have a Russian heart.

You control your own wins and losses.

There are so many roads you can take that will lead you the wrong way, that nobody will hear your name.

If I’m nervous, it means I had to work hard to get there, whether it’s playing in a tournament or speaking at an event. So I try to stop and be proud of getting to live in that moment.

I have had lots of luck in my career but there has also been a lot of hard work.

Whenever I have friends over, we end up eating and talking and losing track of time, and, once in a while, singing karaoke. It reminds me of the family meals we had in Russia, which always lasted a very long time. That’s a tradition I miss.

I think when you know what you are going to wear, it fits and it’s great material, then you feel confident in it.

In the last year I have gained a lot of experience because I have been playing against top players and realized what things to work on to get better. Top players basically tell you what your weaknesses are on the court.

I’m focused on going out every day and doing my best.

A great tennis career is something that a 15-year-old normally doesn’t have. I hope my example helps other teens believe they can accomplish things they never thought possible.

You have your bad moments in your career and your good moments. And it’s been a good ride so far, but it’s not over yet.

I hit a ball for a living, but I have that passion to keep learning.

And I knew that it was better to live out one’s absurdity than to die for that of others.

Man is not made better by being degraded; he is seldom restrained from crime by harsh measures, except the principle of fear predominates in his character; and then he is never made radically better for its influence.

Better be an old maid, a woman with herself as a husband, than the wife of a fool; and Solomon more than hints that all men are fools; and every wise man knows himself to be one.

If you can get nothing better out of the world, get a good dinner out of it, at least.

Make the world better.

The great majority of women are more intelligent, better educated, and far more moral than multitudes of men whose right to vote no man questions.

Man is not made better by being degraded.

I was taught to think the next week or month or year will only get better than it is today. So I just keep waiting to see how great it will get!