"My feelings, as the last ball travelled over the net, and as I realized that the final match was mine, I cannot describe. I felt that here was a prize for all the games I had ever played"
About this Quote
Then she pivots to an even sharper claim: the match isn’t just hers, the prize is for “all the games I had ever played.” That’s not nostalgia; it’s a retrospective rewrite of effort. She’s turning a single point into a ledger settlement, making the trophy feel less like a lucky weekend and more like accumulated labor finally coming due. The subtext is almost transactional: years of repetition, travel, pressure, and self-discipline have been waiting for a moment that can justify them.
The imagery is tellingly modest. It’s not “as the crowd roared” or “as history was made,” but “the last ball travelled over the net.” The net is the boundary between control and uncertainty, and the last ball crossing it marks the instant when preparation becomes fact. For an early 20th-century woman dominating an elite sport, that understatement also reads as strategy: claim authority through composure. The sentence performs the very poise her era demanded, while quietly asserting something bigger - that greatness is built, not gifted.
Quote Details
| Topic | Victory |
|---|---|
| Source | Quotation attributed to Helen Wills Moody; cited on the Wikiquote page 'Helen Wills Moody' (contains the line beginning 'My feelings, as the last ball travelled over the net...'). |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Moody, Helen Wills. (2026, January 17). My feelings, as the last ball travelled over the net, and as I realized that the final match was mine, I cannot describe. I felt that here was a prize for all the games I had ever played. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-feelings-as-the-last-ball-travelled-over-the-48863/
Chicago Style
Moody, Helen Wills. "My feelings, as the last ball travelled over the net, and as I realized that the final match was mine, I cannot describe. I felt that here was a prize for all the games I had ever played." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-feelings-as-the-last-ball-travelled-over-the-48863/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My feelings, as the last ball travelled over the net, and as I realized that the final match was mine, I cannot describe. I felt that here was a prize for all the games I had ever played." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-feelings-as-the-last-ball-travelled-over-the-48863/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.
