“I like to wear classic silhouettes and add a punch to it. I’ll wear a high-waist legging and a super-crop top or a see-through top with a nice bra underneath. And I just always try to mix it up with heels or something.”

I just could never have imagined that I would be mentioned with Chris Evert or with Martina Navratilova, because I was just a kid with a dream and a racquet. Living in Compton, you know, this never happened before.

I went on the courts with just a ball and a racket and a hope and that’s all I had.

I do want to look good still; I do want to be healthy.

Since I don’t look like every other girl, it takes a while to be okay with that. To be different. But different is good.

If Plan A isn’t working, I have Plan B, Plan C, and even Plan D.

You just have to prove to yourself that you can go out there and be the best that you can be and not prove anything to anyone.

If you can keep playing tennis when somebody is shooting a gun down the street, that’s concentration.

Luck has nothing to do with it, because I have spent many, many hours, countless hours, on the court working for my one moment in time, not knowing when it would come.

My smile is my favorite part of my body. I think a smile can make your whole body. I want women to know that it’s ok. That you can be whatever size you are and be beautiful inside and out.

I decided I can’t pay a person to rewind time, so I may as well get over it.

I always ask my dad why wasn’t I a lefty? Even when I was younger I wanted to be lefty. I could have been really good.

I never left my roots. You can identify me as someone that didn’t become high and mighty. Humility is a defining [trait] all of us can forever learn, and I try to be as humble as anyone can be.

I don’t want to end my career and then start something. I like to do something while my career is still hot and I’ve always enjoyed designing.

I always say if I play my best it’s difficult to beat me

Nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream.

I just never give up. I fight to the end. You can’t go out and say, ‘I want a bag of never-say-die spirit.’ It’s not for sale. It has to be innate.