There is always a dream, for me, in the locker room before matches as well during the day. If you have a strong mind, a strong tendency to keep you strong, I think your dream is coming.

We all know how to play tennis. We all know how to hit the ball. It's more just about those details - managing all those early rounds and just managing yourself to make sure you're ready for whatever is coming up next.

The negative talk, everything that has been coming my way, I don't care about it.

I never thought I was going to make a career out of tennis, to be honest, until I was 10 or 11 years old. One of my earliest memories is when I was seven, and I was competing against players that were three, four years older than me. I didn't take it too seriously at the time. I was having a lot of fun.

So that when I came from Panama... my family was exiled in 1973 and they went to Miami.

The way my family always did Christmas was on Christmas Eve, it wasn't really centered around a dinner on Christmas Eve. It was more about keeping the kids calm. Sometime after dark is when we were going to open all the presents underneath the tree from Mom, Dad and the kids and everything - just the family presents was every Christmas Eve.

I think sometimes parents and teachers can push children away from reading by telling them it's something they must do, the same way they must eat their greens and must pass their exams in school. Poppycock! Read or don't read - that's your call.

I believe that everyone can appreciate the right of a family to grieve the loss of a loved one in peace, regardless of anyone's position on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.