Maria Sharapova ready for 2014 Quotes

When asked about Serena Williams

“Absolutely, I’m glad she exists,”

“I don’t think I would form a new team together and that I would go through the efforts of trying to come back if I didn’t have it,” she said, her slightly sleepy eyes flashing as she leaned into the table. “It’s a lot of work, a lot of work, and I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t feel strongly about what my goals are and what I feel I can accomplish.”

“All these other things, these commitments, I’ve had since I was 18,” Sharapova said. “There’s so many, and for the two years I was coming back after shoulder surgery and the full year on tour before I won the French Open, I was working on Sugarpova when no one had any idea what I was doing because no one knew about the company.”

“I’ve been there in much tougher times, and I came back and I got through it,” she said, referring to her shoulder surgery in 2008. “I know this is far from as serious as it was before, so that’s a huge thing.”

“I think when you have surgery on any part of your body, it’s never going to be the same,” she said. “I think for me, it was a lot of matches, and my thing is I’m very loose-jointed, so changes come, change of weather, change of balls, I am quite sensitive to that, and I think everything just kind of piled on.”

Sharapova said: “I don’t know how I managed to get through Madrid. And then Rome, I was playing Sloane Stephens, and I finished the match, and I said: ‘There’s no way. My shoulder just kills. I’m serving, and I’m in a lot of pain.’

“I don’t know how I won that match. You can even go back and watch the video and see my face is totally white, because I know something is not right.”

On Jimmy Connors

“Jimmy came in at the wrong time and in the wrong place,” she said. “I think when he came in post-Wimbledon, I don’t think any coach could have succeeded in the frame of mind I had at that time. Because I was going to practice, and I knew I couldn’t serve, and I knew that there was a good chance I might not play the U.S. Open.

“As an athlete, that’s tough to digest. I was not fun to be around, and it was a tough position for him.”

“Even though he did commit to more weeks than I thought he could, it still wasn’t a full-time schedule,” she said. “And when I started looking at the options I had, which in the tennis world are not so large, and what I wanted to do moving forward, I thought Sven was going to be a good option.”

“You have to believe in your thinking and what you feel,” she said. “If you don’t believe in what you’re doing, time goes quickly in the tennis world.”

“I had a challenging last year with going through a breakup while winning a Grand Slam,” she said. “So it’s nice. I’m in a nice place in my life definitely, and I think I’m much more grateful now for the things I have just because I feel I’ve experienced a lot, so if I’m able to come home and be happy with someone, it’s because I’ve learned from the past.”

The things I say at my press conferences, I don’t lie. I don’t pretend. I respect where respect is due. I speak bad of my game and of myself when I feel I deserve it. I’m very honest.”

On Commentating for NBC Russia Winter Olympics

“I was planning on going anyway, and this just kind of came about,” Sharapova said of the NBC offer. “Personally, selfishly, it’s just really good experience for me, because I’ve never done anything like that with television, and I’m keen to learn. I’ve never been to a Winter Olympics before. I’m certainly not going to be commenting on bobsledding or anything.”