Olympics Quotes Of The Day!

Written by: Staff on 4th August 2012

Olympics Quotes Of The Day!

epa03340439 (L-R) Maria Sharapova (Russia, silver), Serena Williams (USA, gold) and Victoria Azarenka (Belarus, bronze) during the medal ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games Tennis competition in Wimbledon, Greater London, Britain, 04 August 2012. EPA/ANDY RAIN |

(Courtesy of ITF)

Victoria Azarenka (BLR)

On what a bronze medal means to her…

AZARENKA: Oh, it means everything. It was incredible feeling to just go out there today after tough day yesterday and to fight hard and just give it all. It was incredibly difficult physically, but I’m so proud of what I did. Emotions are overwhelming, overtaking me.

On whether she expected it to be this emotional…

AZARENKA: I didn’t know what it was going to feel like. You can’t think in the future how it’s going to feel. You think you’re going to react one way or another way. It’s something that comes out of your heart and never expect what’s going to happen.

On how this ranks among her other achievements…

AZARENKA: Something really special. The other trophies is just different from what this is going to mean to me for the rest of my life.

Maria Sharapova (RUS)

On what winning the silver medal means, having missed out on gold…

SHARAPOVA: Well, it means a lot. This is my first Olympic experience. I mean, this is probably one of the toughest events, playing six matches in the span of eight days against tough competition. It’s such a unique experience for all of us. For me to be a first Olympian and to leave with a silver is an amazing accomplishment. Obviously it’s always disappointing to lose in the finals, but it’s great to get a medal, that’s for sure.

On playing at Rio 2016…

SHARAPOVA: If anyone can tell me what I’m doing in four years… (but) I would love to. I had a great experience here. It all seemed so quick, just seemed like I arrived in London. Here we are, I’ll be leaving tomorrow. It’s been an incredible experience. I mean, I love Brazil. I would love to be a part of it there, but who knows what will be in four years.

On Serena Williams’s performance…

SHARAPOVA: She was not making many mistakes, not giving me many opportunities. She served extremely well, found the spots all around, and pretty fast, as well. She returned well. She stays really low, hits the ball really hard. She’s an extremely powerful player, so that makes it a little more difficult.

Serena Williams (USA)

On where the gold medal ranks among her other achievements…

SERENA: Oh, my gosh, this one is so high up there, being Olympic gold champion, being Golden Slam champion singles and doubles, that’s pretty awesome.

On the match against Maria Sharapova…

SERENA: I don’t know. I was so focused here. I remember I was serving and I was thinking, ‘Serena, this is your best chance to win a gold medal. You played Wimbledon on grass. You played great on grass. Pull it together.’ I was thinking, I got to do this.

Bob and Mike Bryan (USA)

On what it means to win an Olympic gold medal…

MIKE BRYAN: It’s just something that you dream about. To add the ‘Golden’ in front of the ‘Slam’ is pretty cool. Watching the flag go up, hearing the national anthem, you just want savor those moments. I wanted to take mental pictures and store ‘em deep in our head.

BOB BRYAN: We’ve won a lot of Slams. Slams are awesome. I can tell you there’s no better feeling than this right now. Winning for each other, for our team, but for our country. It brought a different level of intensity to our tennis this week. We were scraping and clawing on every point. To hear the national anthem and stand on top of the podium, we could shut our careers down today and be happy for the rest of our lives.

On Olympic memories growing up…

MIKE BRYAN: The Olympics is an event that is special. I think everyone has memories of watching the Olympics when they’re on TV and wanted to be there. When we go home, everyone’s going to want to see that medal. Our email boxes are filled. I just looked at my phone, I couldn’t count how many emails I had.

BOB BRYAN: People that we haven’t talked to in 10 years have already called and texted, so we have a lot of new friends now after winning this gold, which is cool.

On the Olympics being a goal growing up…

BOB BRYAN: Yeah, I mean, seeing the Dream Team back in ’92, Barcelona, it was amazing. You hear the buzz from the other players on the tour about how great the Olympics is. You want to try to get there. That’s the first thing. We missed out on Sydney. We just missed it. We wanted to become Olympians. In Athens, we were just in awe. We were Olympians. Crazy feelings. I had tears in my eyes walking around in the opening ceremony. Then you show up in Beijing. Let’s get a medal. We did that. When we didn’t win the gold, if we could drop a pin on the calendar, a place to peak, it would be here, and we did it. Wimbledon felt like a warm-up to this moment.

On raising their game for the big moments…

BOB BRYAN: We play our best tennis in Davis Cup and Slams. We play with a little extra fire, magic, passion when we’re playing for our country. We’re a different team when we’re playing for our flag.

Topics: Bob Bryan, London Olympic Tenns, London Olympics, Maria Sharapova, Mike Bryan, Serena Williams, Sports, Tennis News, tennis Olympic finals, Victoria Azarenka