For many years, tennis was the most important thing in my life. That was great. Nothing wrong with that.

Nothing against the Olympics. I played in 2012 and it was an incredible experience. It's different for tennis players than for swimmers and track and field athletes. That's the pinnacle of their sport and not so much the pinnacle of tennis.

As a tennis player, or any professional athlete, our career has a shelf life. I don't want to waste any opportunities, I don't want to look back on it when I'm 45 and think I could have done a lot more.

The good wins are still great, and you are on cloud nine when that happens, but the losses sting.

I've sort of always pulled for the heels, like the bad guys. So I think if I were a pro wrestler, first I'd need to bulk up, and second I'll need to get sort of a bad-boy persona.

That's why I enjoy Davis Cup, and I really enjoyed college tennis. It's very special. You want to go out there and compete your hardest, because you don't want to let anyone down. You want to absolutely give it your all for your team. And that's sort of the mentality I've taken to pro tennis.

You're going to lose points and gain points throughout the year.

Up until I was a junior at Georgia, I felt that when all was said and done, I'd at least have a college degree to fall back on when tennis was finished.

I felt a ton of pressure in '08. A lot of great things were expected of me right out of the gate, and I brought some of that on myself with those great early results. But I wasn't a good enough player to make a run every fourth or fifth tournament. I wasn't as good a player as my ranking indicated.

A tournament pays me to show up because the fans want to see me and I move the needle at the box office? That's amazing. It's good for tennis, good for me and good for the event. If a sponsor wants to pay to put their company name on my shirt because they think I'm a strong ambassador for their brand? Heck yes.

I want to be a top-10 player and I want to win a Grand Slam tournament.

Usually I'm traveling for tennis, so the most important thing for me is to not get jet lag.

My expenses are largely a fixed, sunken cost, regardless of how much revenue I earn.

Sometimes I think the easiest way to introduce what goes into managing the expenses of a tennis career is to take a look at another pro sport and notice some of the differences.

I've learned how to sleep on airplanes. When I'm taking a trans-Atlantic flight or going to a different continent, I will always read because reading puts me to sleep. When you watch a movie, you have all that light coming to your eyes, but with reading, I can't get through 15 or 20 pages.

I make a lot of bogeys and a lot of birdies.

I've always said that it's none of my business what other people think of me.

I'm a kind of go-getter.

I guess when we get older, we try so hard to get our game back. Sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn't.

I wasn't a silver-spoon kid on the golf course growing up.

I'm really good at math and history, but I suck in English.

I've had surgery on my knee and both feet and my elbow.

I'd like my first Ryder Cup appearance to be in the United States.

I've always said that I play for the fans.