Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

“When I need to get into details, I like French. But when I want to do something stronger, English is better. The swear words are stronger in English. And on the court, 'Allez!' is light. 'Come on!' That's strong.”

“Even if you play, you know, the best player in the world... you have a chance.”

“When you travel like we do, a holiday is simply being able to sleep in your own bed.”

“Sports, it's beautiful, because you can always do something.”

“I get some letters from a lot of people. Sometimes it's nice, with letters from kids or from parents of kids who want to be tennis players, but I also get racist letters. It's really painful to receive something like that because you're not ready for that. You think to yourself, 'That's really bad.' But I realise that there are people like that.”

“I do a lot of conditionning in the off season with my coach but there a lot of exercise and they are specific to each individual.”

“It's quite a good feeling when you win against 10,000 people.”

“For me it is always fun to be on the court, and fight, and try to get every ball.”

“I enjoy every time on the court.”

“I think my best friends are my team-mates in Davis Cup. We have been growing up together since we were 11 or 12.”

“When I come to London, it is always quite relaxing for me in a way, not just because it is one of my favourite cities but because it comes immediately after the French Open, which for me is a very significant tournament with lots of pressure.”

“I think the best match I played was against Roger Federer in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2011, especially because I won this match after being two sets down.”

“I have been regularly confronted with racism, very regularly, and since my earliest childhood.”

“I have a lot of respect for who beats me and that's it.”

“Stupidity cannot be controlled, only contained.”

“I decided to practice alone because it was a challenge for me to see how much I love tennis. And making sure I was not trying just to respond to other people's expectations and that I really wanted it myself. I realized that I just loved tennis, that it was something extraordinary, that I would really want to do that.”

“Everybody's expecting a lot from me.”

“Sometimes you go through a few tournaments without having a five-setter.”

“Yes, there are moments when it's frustrating where you can't put the ball where you want it and you make mistakes.”

“Tennis runs in cycles. There are victories. There are disappointments.”