Pam Shriver
When I was 13, tennis became more of my life. It's when I gave up skiing, I gave up winter sports. I still played varsity basketball my freshman year of high school - basketball was the last sport I gave up for my tennis.Collection: Sports
I think my best tennis is good enough to win.
Living in Los Angeles and having three little kids, it's hard following the Orioles.
There's always a time in a relationship when you can pull back. Three years ago when I realized I was falling for a guy with a complicated medical history, I decided not to exit. Believe me, I made the right decision.
I have horrible handwriting, horrible spelling and horrible grammar.
I hate sitting still.
I've learned to really appreciate the courtside position and the art of picking up certain subtleties. Player expression you can't see from a camera angle, or the booth.
Even when I played, if they gave me the microphone after a match, whether a doubles final or a singles final, I'd handle the microphone pretty well.
My office is just off my master bedroom. One of my theories is I needed to double-door it with three kids at home.
I feel like the NBA, WNBA, tennis and basketball have really been at the forefront of social justice and pushing for change from the athlete platform.
I was given advice early in the quarantine: Don't focus on what you don't have. Focus on what you do have and will have again, and I've said that to myself over and over again.
The microphone is open. There is no delay. If I see something and want to say it right now, I can.
I love women's tennis, and I want it to do well. But I don't want to pander. I don't have to be warm and fuzzy. I just want to be respected.
I didn't mean to offend anybody. It's my filter. I constantly work on it.
You realize as an athlete that there is a bit of a clock, and you don't want to look back on a career and say, 'I wish I had done this a bit differently.'
I feel that I can make certain shots, tough shots, and that I can play better when things aren't going well.
Have a living will if you don't want long-term life support. It makes the decision easier for the family.
It was quite the intimidating Sunday afternoon, US Open finals day for me. Sixteen years old, the 16th seed, second major, first US Open, as an amateur, playing Chris Evert.
I haven't always been as gracious a loser as I could have been.
I am so worried about my shoulder, which aches now as I write. The pain is frightening because of its intensity. I want so much to get rid of this pain. I must be strong. I must be strong.
But politics is something that would require so much of me. I'm a public figure now, but as a politician... It's more likely that I'll become a sportscaster than a politician.
People all the time try to take my outside interests and make them a negative. My life has always been like that and it always will be like that. I don't think it necessarily means that while I'm concentrating on tennis I can't put 100% into it. If I didn't have 100 different interests, I probably wouldn't be as good a player.
Being a 6-foot-tall tennis player is not great for a girl's social life.
If I had to write a novel, I'd start crying after three lines.
When you're in the second set and you start thinking I have to win this and get it over, the pressure to finish quickly can get to you.
The pace of play is very important whether I'm watching baseball, tennis or golf.
To be part of the big picture, whether it's celebrity interviews or seeing how big the U.S. Open is in New York or on the world stage, is amazing.
You have to make sure the players know to be accessible, and that's part of their job. That's why you earn a lot of money. There's a public relations, fan-friendly part of it.
Living in Baltimore at age 11, I was still not single-focused on tennis. I still played other sports. It was becoming a bigger part of my life, but it was still mainly my summer hobby.
Eventually I ran for the board of the WTA, lost my first attempt, got on the board my second attempt, and stayed there through most of my career.
I became president of the players' association and was willing to have conversations with influential people about equal prize money or how the tour could be promoted and structured in a way to make women's tennis better.
A major final to a tennis player is sacred ground. Short of any type of serious injury - soft-tissue tears, serious orthopedic injuries or a major illness like throwing up, dehydration or cramping - you keep going, especially in the final of a Slam.
I took more anti-inflammatories probably than anybody in my 20 years of playing and I know what that terrible stomach pain can be. I also know what terrible menstruation cramps can be, as most women tennis players have, to the point where you feel nauseous, but you just play on.
I got to one Grand Slam final, and that's what you shoot for as a player.
In regular tournaments, players throw in the towel occasionally for one reason or another.
Well they do have drug testing at all the majors and there will be a lot of speculation about what in the world is wrong with Serena Williams and we will find out as much as we can.Collection: Drug