It’s really impossible for athletes to grow up. On the one hand, you’re still a child, still playing a game. But on the other hand, you’re a superhuman hero that everyone dreams of being. No wonder we have such a hard time understanding who we are.
BILLIE JEAN KINGThe most important words that have helped me in life, when things have gone right or when things have gone wrong are ‘accept responsibility.’
More Billie Jean King Quotes
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As far as U.S. tennis, we need new stars coming up in the pipeline, but I don’t know if we have it.
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I have a lot to say, and if I’m not No. 1, I can’t say it.
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You can’tbuy that. It’s about making decisions, corrections, choices. I don’t think it’s so much about becoming a tennis player. It’s about becoming a person.
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Reputation is what others think about you. What’s far more important is character, because that is what you think about yourself.
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When a child signs up for tennis, he or she is put on a team. I put them in a circle and then I make sure they name their own team.
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Pressure is a privilege … it’s what you do with it that matters.
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At 62 you want to keep moving; that’s important.
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I like putting money back into what made my life, and tennis has been great to me.
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Winning comes down to who can execute under pressure.
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There is no life for girls in team sports past Little League. I got into tennis when I realized this, and because I thought golf would be too slow for me, and I was too scared to swim.
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Martina and I went through a very bad five years. Everything’s very good between us now, but it was a long haul.
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Being Number One isn’t everything to me, but for those few hours on the court it’s way ahead of whatever’s in second place.
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I must keep my sights on the final goal, to win, win, win-and with more love and passion than the world has ever witnessed in any performance.
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The trouble with being number one in the world – in anything- is that it takes a certain mentality to attain that position, and that is something of a driving, perfectionist attitude, so that once you do achieve number one, you don’t relax and enjoy it.
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I like to see what future generations are thinking about.
BILLIE JEAN KING