Quotes

"It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice."

"I can't stay number 1 for fifty years, you know. We'll see what happens."

"I fear no one, but respect everyone."

"I am honoured to join the ranks of UNICEF's Goodwill Ambassadors. I’ve been lucky in life and able to pursue my passion for tennis since I was six years old. It's important to me to help the many children throughout the world who do not have the basic resources they need."

"Previously I always thought it was just tactical and technique, but every match has become almost mental and physical. I try to push myself to move well. I try to push myself not to get upset and stay positive, and that's what my biggest improvement is over all those years. Under pressure I can see things very clear."

"I've always tried to put in as much as I could back into the game because the game, this is what I love doing. It's been so good to me. I hope that once I retire, I left tennis in a better way than when I arrived."

"I have learnt to be even more patient."

"All these grand slams have been since 2003. That's what, for me, is really scary, how many I've won. If somebody would have told me I'd win 10 Grand Slams from mid '03 till today, I never would have thought there was any chance of doing something like that. I would have signed up for just one."

"I was too much of a perfectionist when I was young. I could never accept any mistakes... eventually I just got it together, you know. But it took me a long time. I thought by the end of my teenage years I would figure it out, but it took me till the beginning of my 20s to really get to understand what I had to do."

"It's just unreal, I'm shocked myself. I've played good matches here, but never really almost destroyed somebody."

"Winning matches that's the best thing, breaking records is something you never dream of. It's just fantastic, I hope I can keep it up."

"It's great... being there till the end, seeing an empty locker room and a full stadium."

"I went through a very interesting phase in the last ten years, tried to get to the top and staying at the top and facing many different things – media, sponsors, fans, big occasions. And for me, I’ve never had a reason to kind of get crazy about it. I kind of had enough time to grow into the position, you know, because I didn't come up through juniors and then right away won Wimbledon. It took me a few years. Maybe that was the time to allow me a lot of time to grow as a person first."

"My family is the thing I miss most on the tour."

"Now I know what I'm capable of."

"I've really proved that on all surfaces, everywhere in the world, I can win the title. It's been incredible for me from beginning to end."