I don't play a lot of tournaments, but if I don't win a tournament in a year, people are like, 'What in the world is going on?' People don't realize how hard it is to win tournaments. You're not going to go out and play 10 tournaments and win one of them. Your odds aren't that good.
I had a lot of success in big tournaments as well - won Masters Series in Rome - so a lot of things are coming together. I've done a lot of hard work in the off-season. A lot of physical work, a lot of work on my serve and on my return game.
I've played [Scrabble] tournaments for about 20 years. My daughter, Erin, who lives with me, also travels to tournaments. While I'm not a top division player, I've won a number of tournaments.
I had a really great career. I have won over 300 matches, won a bunch of tournaments, almost won a bunch of big tournaments, beaten a lot of good players and done more things than I ever could have imagined.
Anything that would help me get my ranking up and get me seeded at tournaments will make my draws a lot easier and give me a much better opportunity to go deep in these tournaments.
My father didn't compete ever in martial arts tournaments because they were not real. They were tag tournaments or touch tournaments, which he thought was bizarre and not really what the martial arts is about.
There's just a lot of really young, entitled people. I don't think a lot of these young people have to work very hard. They're found on YouTube and, boom, thrown into the studio, so they think they can get anything they want.
There's a lot of, unfortunately, a lot of divorced families. I come from a divorced family... and you have parents meet someone and they have kids and you're with that whole having to meet new people and be your family. That's always a hard thing to do.
My family vacations were softball tournaments.
I'm young, but I've been doing this a long time... There's obviously a lot of hard work that goes into it. It's a hard town. There's a lot of talent here. It's all about timing, too. I just feel like I finally found the right town and the right song.
When I was young, I watched my mom and dad build everything that matters: a family, a business and a good name. I was raised to believe in hard work, in faith and family. My dad, Ed Pence, was a combat veteran in Korea.
In 1971, big tournaments were very new to me. I just thought Wimbledon was one of the other tournaments.
A lot of my family weren't present when I was young, so I was getting a lot of stories told to me about them. Certain members of family had reputations because they were involved in crime and stuff like that. Then, when I was out on the streets, I'd be hearing more stories about them. So I think my whole upbringing was just heavily story-oriented.
I want to work as hard as I can. But I also want six kids! It takes a lot of courage as an actor to take time off for family. But family is everything.
I think they are paying a lot more attention to news now, by the way, in part because of national-security issues. A lot of young people have friends or family in the military today.
I've won the U.S. Championship. I've won a lot of tournaments.