During high school, I would purposely lose tennis and squash matches to escape the agony of anxiety that competitive situations would provoke in me.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I used to play a lot of racket sports, tennis and squash.
Tennis is my life, obviously; I need to focus, I need to win. But it's not the only thing. I'm not going to play forever.
I was being groomed to be a tennis player for sure. My grandparents and parents realised I had a natural athletic ability and if I was forced to do it, I could probably do well. But all I wanted was to play pretend.
There was never anything I wanted to do more than play tennis. Never once walked out there and thought, 'I wish I was doing something else.' Not once.
Tennis is a psychological sport, you have to keep a clear head. That is why I stopped playing.
I've been playing tennis, and just whatever sport is in front of me I will do.
Tennis was never work for me, tennis was fun. And the tougher the battle and the longer the match, the more fun I had.
To meet my goals, I couldn't let up when I was playing tennis.
Tennis was always there for me, which was lucky. I would go play baseball, basketball, football, hang with my brother, do whatever, and at the end of the day I'd come back and say, 'Hey, Mom, would you hit 15 minutes worth of balls with me?'
With everything else that would swirl around me when I got involved in it, tennis was my main concern.