Kevin Anderson

Changing public perceptions is important. Nobody bats an eyelid in a team sport when a player gets injured and is still getting paid. In tennis, there is nothing like that.

By giving myself the freedom to lose, I actually began to play much better.

Some players are constantly changing racquets, fiddling with them. It's not that I'm not specific with my racquets, but I feel that I'm not as obsessed with some of that stuff as many of the other players are.

I actually tried quite a few racquets in college before I turned pro.

If you try to simplify it as much as possible, I guess you could say if a guy who is my size can move around the same as a guy who is much smaller, you would think there are maybe going to be a few more advantages.

Even though I'm 32, I feel like I'm playing my best-ever tennis and like the best years are ahead of me.

I try and focus on the youth coming up, and I think tennis is a great sport regardless of how far you make it: just, obviously, a lot of good life lessons.

Of course, on the road with me, I've got my coach, my own private physiotherapist. Back home, I have another coach who coaches me and also does all my racquets. I have a fitness trainer. I have a mental coach. It's a pretty big team.

With all the lead tape, my racquet is heavier than the model you're going to find off the rack. It's got most of its weight in the throat of the racquet; it's not too head-heavy. I don't like the feeling of a racquet that's so head-heavy I can't maneuver it around so well.

I think what's really important from a player is to understand what you did well in that match and see maybe if there's a few areas that you could have done a little bit better, identify them, try to implement it, and keep getting better as the tournament goes on.

There are a lot of men playing great tennis well into their thirties.

Especially at Indian Wells, Miami, the hard courts are what I grew up on, so I'm probably most used to it.