Sublime

If you think you are controlled by a bad habit, then you will feel you have to try to break it. A child doesn’t have to break the habit of crawling, because he doesn’t think he has a habit. He simply leaves it as he finds walking an easier way to get around.

I’ve always played with ProBlend, a string that’s half Kevlar, half nylon. You can reel in an eight-hundred-pound marlin with ProBlend. It never breaks, never forgives, but also never generates spin. It’s like hitting the ball with a garbage can lid. People talk about the game changing, about players growing more powerful, and rackets getting bigge

As far as I’m concerned, you’re a racehorse, and I’ll always treat you accordingly. I’ll be firm, but fair. I’ll lead, never push. I’m not one of those people who expresses or articulates feelings very well, but from now on, just know this: It’s on, man. It is on.

There’s about five times a year you wake up perfect, when you can’t lose to anybody, but it’s not those five times a year that make a tennis player. Or a human being, for that matter. It’s the other times. It’s all about your head, man. With your talent, if you’re fifty percent game-wise, but ninety-five percent head-wise, you’re going to win.

As a player, I believed in intimidation. I didn’t want to just win games, I wanted to rob the other team of any sense of belief they had in their ability. I didn’t want players thinking they could come back against us when they were down.

Erik Seidel, for whom the challenge of poker is slightly different. For over three decades, he has led the poker world. He holds eight WSOP bracelets (only five players in the tournament’s history have more) and a World Poker Tour title. He is in the Poker Hall of Fame, one of just thirty-two living members. He boasts the fourth-highest tournament