My parents expected achievement. One day, I fell off my bike. I told my mom, ‘My arm hurts’. She was and operating-room nurse at the time, and knew about hurt arms. She felt the arm, thought it was jus a bruise, and said, ‘Go back to the tennis court’. Three weeks later, it was still hurting, and I was still complaining. Finally my mom took me to the doctor. I had a fracture left arm.

Between my fast feet and my sharp eyes, I got almost every ball back. I learned very early on that you don’t have to overpower the ball to win tennis matches – if you get everything back, you’re going to beat just everybody.

The angles were everything. It wasn’t about just hitting a slice an approaching the net. Sometimes you should slice it deep, but sometimes you could come in and slice it off the court – use the angles.

I believe firmly that players at every level should practice every shot, from any position on the court, using a variety of paces and spins. Lobs, drop-shots, and half-volleys – all shots that are too seldom paid attention to by recreational players – can change the outcome of a match.

Talking about what makes good doubles team is like trying to talk about what makes a good marriage: There’s a lot that seems obvious, but the intangibles play a big role. In both cases, chemistry is everything. In doubles, if the chemistry’s not there, the mistakes your partner is bound to make get on your nerves more and more. And vice versa. As partners on a tennis court, you both have to be able to roll with the punches.

Anyone who’s close to me and also plays tennis knows that once I’m out on the court in a singles match, it’s basically: Make no prisoners. I’m not saying it’s the best way to be – I just don’t know any other way.
Now, though, it feels like tennis has become such a business that all the life and personality have been sucked out of it.

Once you’ve put in the work, though, the game becomes extremely mental. I had enough inner strength to know I could beat anyone at all, anytime, on any surface. But behind my defenses were some very dark places. There was the devil inside me whom I had to fight. And the devil was fear of failure.

Nobody in the sport has ever worked as hard as he [Lendl] did.

I did spend a lot more time practicing than most people thought I did, however, and a lot more time thinking about tennis. I’ve always thought constantly about the game, almost the way chess players think about chess. Tony Palafox drilled it into me: Be ready for the next shot. Know what you’re going to do next. […]