“Ups and downs will be happening; coming to the final and losing by a point or so should not matter.”

Every tournament is important for me.

I was at the Gopichand Academy since I was 10.

My long-term goal is to become the world number one player.

I didn’t think I would have an Olympic medal at 21, but I knew I would give my best and play my game. I just viewed it as my first Olympics and that I would take it one match at a time, but to bring a silver home made me very, very happy.

If it makes me happy, it definitely adds to my well-being.

There were many struggles, but my parents supported me a lot. Whenever I wanted anything, wherever I wanted to go, practice session etc., they were there for me.

Since I’m the youngest in the family, I sulk when my parents deny me something, although I come around when they explain why it was denied.

Injuries are part of life. We can’t decide on that.

Against each player, I will give 100 per cent. I give my best in every game.

I prepare the same for every opponent.

Talking about world-class player, no player is easy to play at this level. Each player has a different style of play.

I have been playing with boys, which is helpful for me.

Fitness is the key. You need to have strokes and stamina and agility; you need to exercise really well. On-court and off-court are equally important.

Tennis, at times, I follow, but not much.

One tournament win doesn’t make you perfect.

The key is not being overconfident. You should not think that because I’m a top-ranked player, I will win this game. You have to be focused.

It’s really, really, really difficult to have the same occupation as the person you’re with – especially when you’re both actors.

Art is difficult, transient is her reward.

~My instinct is to protect my children from pain. But adversity is often the thing that gives us character and backbone. It’s always been a struggle for me to back off and let my children go through difficult experiences.~

Everybody understands that acting is a really difficult job. It’s hard work. You’ve got to get dressed up, you’ve got to hang around with beautiful women. It’s difficult. It’s a problem.

We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class, of necessity, in every society, to forego the privileges of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks.

After acknowledging that most law enforcement personnel are fair-minded and do a difficult job, it only takes one exception to create a terrible tragedy.

True lovers know how trifling a thing is money yet how difficult to blend with love!

Often, I am asked, ‘What was your father like?’ or, ‘What would he think?’ These are very difficult questions to answer, as I was so very young when I lost my father.