Tennis is a young man's game. Until you're 25, you can play singles. From 25 to 35, you should play doubles. I won't tell you exactly how old I am, but when I played, there were 28 men on the court - just on my side of the net.
Guys are bigger, stronger, just like in singles, serving bigger, returning better, and more athletic for sure. I think from my standpoint, just spending more time in the gym has enabled me to hang in there.
I'm pretty professional. I'm very aware when I'm not playing well and what I need to improve. I'm pretty motivated to fix things. There are guys out there who are not realistic; they don't like to take blame for certain things they don't do well. That's the nature of doubles sometimes: it's easy to find faults in your partner.
I really enjoyed every minute of it. I mean, I've learned so much in the last week, I mean, just the way to play a real, real doubles. It was a great experience for me, and we had a lot of fun.
I feel like I'm more a fan of tennis rather than it being men's or women's. I enjoy watching doubles as well when it's on. I think that there are certain players that I enjoy watching on the men's and women's side. There's some players that I don't enjoy watching on both sides.
That's what I've been always saying, that I was always using the mixed doubles especially to improve my net game and being able to return a guy's serve, 'cause then when you play someone like Serena, you are little bit more prepared for that.
I mean, every single time I was there with Mahesh, I just tried to learn something of his game, because he's, you know, one of the best doubles players that's been around ever.
I've been talking to Martina [Hingis] about playing for a couple of years. Maybe I can convince her to play some doubles.
I would say playing doubles is great for, you know, just in general. For the singles game, as well. You're able to work on returns, serves, aggressive playing. Also able to practice pressure situations.
To me, there are only a few tournaments that are important. The Grand Slams, Davis Cup, the Swedish Open; that's about it.
You know, I think playing doubles definitely helps your singles game in all aspects. Just being able to get that match practice, match preparation before playing singles matches. Then it also builds confidence just getting wins from doubles, yeah.
I was eighth in the world in doubles, 67th in singles. Could I have achieved more? Yes, perhaps, but I did it my way.
You have some singles that play doubles, but you have doubles players that can beat singles players when they're playing doubles.
I always wanted to help make tennis a team sport.
Played tennis for years. But you can't improve at tennis after you're 50. You get to be in your 40s, and suddenly you're a doubles player.
My career's had a lot of ups and downs. Once I started playing with John Peers in 2013, that gave me a huge lift, a lot of direction, which I needed.
Doubles is exciting. Especially in the U.S. a lot of elite players play. They want to learn more about doubles, recreationally play and enjoy. When you see doubles live, you see how fast it is.
Doubles is really exciting. I don't like even comparing it to singles. I get asked a lot of times which one I like better. I think they're two completely different games.
