Quotes of the day - Thursday 25 June 2009

Venus on song “Well, when I walk behind short people I feel like I'm going to fall over because I start taking these little steps, and I can't take little steps. I take big steps. I've always been large, always been tall. I don't know anything about small.” Venus Williams on the perils of being tall. You know, party every day until 6:00 in the morning and then sleep during the day, and now I play these two days (laughter). The secret to effective major Championship tournament preparation brought to you by Roland Garros winner Svetlana Kuznetsova. "Depends. If I go out, maybe 13 hours." Juan Martin Del Potro’s preferred quota of sleep per night. If met on a regular basis then this particular Argentine is looking at spending the majority of his life in the land of nod. “I hope Mirka's a good wife (smiling).” Lleyton Hewitt offers his best advice to father-in-waiting Roger Federer. Evidently a firm believer in the suggestion that: ‘behind every great man there’s a great woman’. “It's a beautiful tournament, so it's always nice to come here. We're lucky with the sun. That's why I'm burned today, right now. “ Gilles Simon discovers that life in SW19 is not all about court covers and umbrellas. “Darren (Cahill) is very experienced coach. In the past, he worked mostly with the guys. I think guys have different mentality to girls. Girls take everything so emotionally.” Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic gets to the bottom of the age old mystery of just what it is that puts men on Mars and women on Venus. “What do you want me to say? I said I wasn't proud, but I'm not going to lie to anybody. I busted my wife on some of her crappy music. She brought up Rick Astley. I can't deny it. It's in my iPod. I bet it's in your iPod, too, so shut up (laughter).” It may not be the strongest defence but the man makes a good point. Consider us well and truely silenced. “When we play for small forfeits I lose the games more, because they don't concentrate as much. It doesn't bother me like when we play for push‑ups and you have to kiss the other guy's toes. Like I'll lose them. But if it's stuff like a cricket bat or you have to get lunch for everyone and stuff, I concentrate a bit harder. “ Andy Murray on his unique and entertaining training regime that has seen the British No.1 forced to wear a cricket helmet this week. If we needed a second reason to hope that Murray hangs around in SW19 until the end of next week it is to find out what he and his coaches have up their sleeve next.