“I’m never standing still and that makes my life pretty exciting.”

When I need to push myself, I think of all those nicely polished trophies waiting to be lifted up by the winner – and how that winner might be me.

I still love things that you don’t even need to pay for. Going to the beach and being around five of your friends and having a good time means so much more than going out and spending hundreds of dollars.

I’d like to have a family.

I definitely feel Russian inside, even when I’m in America I feel Russian.

I know many of you thought that I would be retiring today, but if I was ever going to announce my retirement it would not be in a downtown Los Angeles hotel with this fairly ugly carpet.

When I walk through that gate to the court, that’s my escape. I block out everything, good and bad.

I’d love to open a tennis school for children in my hometown of Sochi.

I’m not the next Kournikova-I want to win matches!

It’s easy to impress me. I don’t need a fancy party to be happy. Just good friends, good food, and good laughs. I’m happy. I’m satisfied. I’m content.

When I’m down or maybe when it’s close in the match, I feel like I’m still in it. I don’t feel like I’m letting down. Mentally, I’m still really, really tough.

When you’re going through tough moments, you never know when you’re going to have good moments.

My main goal is to stay healthy because when you’re injured you realise how lucky you are to have your health.

If I can create something that allows a woman to feel better – that is the true reward.

When you come off the court and you feel like you were losing the whole match, and all of a sudden you pulled it out, you know, it’s those moments that you feel you’ve trained for and you work hard for. Just lucky to get through.

That’s why we have journalists, for stats.

I can’t please everyone. That’s not in my J.D., you know, not in my job description.

A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement.

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.

Probably because I’m from a middle class family, I have that nature in me that I don’t get too excited with big things.

Everything I do is in the gym, so I’m always in gym clothes. I’m excited to explore lifestyle clothes for a little bit.

For me to compete at the highest level, training and living a healthy lifestyle is an everyday focus for me, and I’m excited to be a part of the Everyday Awesome team!

So for [Alexander Wang] to actually put me in a campaign, I was really honored. I’m excited to see how it comes out because I didn’t look at the photos on set; I like to just live in the moment and do what I do and let him and his people put their touch on it.

No matter how good you get you can always get better, and that’s the exciting part.

Find something that you love. Something that gets you so excited you can’t wait to get out of bed in the morning. Forget about money. Be happy.