Light of the Almighty in my heart.

Not feeling like you have to be anywhere else.

Like being three and dancing, giddy with joy.

Life-affirming.

I love to entertain. I'm not sure every player sees it that way, but I love the performance aspect of it—to be able to entertain people week after week. Some of the happiest times in my life were spent waiting in that hallway in Melbourne, and walking out into Rod Laver Arena with my earphones in and trying to stay focused and drown out the noise but still feeling the energy of the crowd.

But these days, if I have to choose between building my tennis résumé and building my family, I choose the latter.

I don’t think about my greatest fear.

I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn't feel like a modern word to me. I've been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people. Maybe the best word to describe what I'm up to is evolution. I'm here to tell you that I'm evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.

Any lost match is, of course, disappointing, but every loss is a lesson to be learned.

Oh, I am not thinking about that yet.