You control your own wins and losses.

I heard endless conversations between my parents when I was going to sleep about how we would survive, how we would continue. All of them were about trying to make me better.

My parents had a normal life in Russia and they could have easily kept living a normal life, working and raising a child in Russia.

I'm an athlete. I go out there and fight my heart out.

The forehands or backhands don't mean much after three hours.

I look forward to the challenges.

As an individual, I take every match seriously, no matter who I'm going to play.

You have your bad moments in your career and your good moments. And it's been a good ride so far, but it's not over yet.

There are days when I go out on the court and I feel like I can't miss a ball.

Sometimes I feel my arm is like a swan's neck - so weak.

I don't follow other players or the tournaments they play. I have my own schedule and do my own thing. I never really think, 'Oh, I want to be or play like so-and-so.' I just like being myself.

I've been playing against older and stronger competition my whole life. It has made me a better tennis player and able to play against this kind of level despite their strength and experience.

I love yoga. I do yoga when I have time, which is not very often.

When I'm down or maybe when it's close in the match, I feel like I'm still in it. I don't feel like I'm letting down. Mentally, I'm still really, really tough.

There are so many roads you can take that will lead you the wrong way, that nobody will hear your name.

When I walk through that gate to the court, that's my escape. I block out everything, good and bad.

I learned there's a big difference between juniors and the pros.

When I travel, I love speaking to women around the world about the things that inspire them, the fashions they like, what makes something good and what would make it even better.

It's strange for my friends when they see me on TV and in magazines, because the person that they see doing interviews and pictures on the red carpet is not the person that they know.

I don't need many things. I don't need glamour and attention to be happy. I'm very happy being settled and working my butt off and trying to win grand slams.

I love jotting down ideas for my blog, so I doodle or take notes on all kinds of stuff that inspires me: the people I meet, boutiques I visit, a florist that just gave me a great idea for an interior-design project, things like that.

I love getting consumer reports. I think it's one of my favourite things, studying what people have to say about the product and then trying to make it better.

I love to eat, and if I could, I'd eat every second of my life.

I'm just like every other girl who likes to shop, likes to look good, likes to spend time with friends.