Time & Perspective Quote by Jana Novotna

Novotna frames retirement not as defeat but as timing - the athlete's most underrated skill. By saying tennis is "too incredibly fast", she isn't just commenting on ball speed or racquet tech; she's describing an ecosystem that stopped rewarding what she was built to do. Her game was tactile and improvisational, full of net instincts, touch volleys, and the kind of risk that looks like artistry when it works and recklessness when it doesn't. Modern baseline power, heavier topspin, and relentless athleticism didn't merely challenge that style - they made it feel like an antique.

The key phrase is "went out of fashion". It's disarmingly modest, even slightly wry: she treats a structural shift in the sport like a trend cycle, as if serve-and-volley is shoulder pads or low-rise jeans. That understatement is the point. It allows her to keep dignity without performing nostalgia or grievance. She's not claiming she couldn't compete; she's claiming the sport changed its tastes.

There is also a quiet critique embedded in the understatement. When speed becomes the defining currency, variety gets taxed. Fans get an easier story (power wins), but the game loses some of its conversational quality: the feints, the sudden changes of tempo, the arguments at the net. Novotna's line reads like an exit interview with modernity itself - graceful, unsentimental, and precise about what progress costs.