The thing I would hate myself for the most or regret the most is if I did not push myself to maximize my potential and my abilities.
For me, a big thing, because I have really long legs, is core stability. It's very important not only for injury but also just to be able to carry my weight around properly and not feel like I'm collapsing in specific situations when I'm stretched out too far.
I'm demanding and critical about myself. It's something my parents passed on to me.
There are still going to be great players that are baseliners. That's the way tennis - courts, balls, everything - has shifted. But everyone has to find their own way to win. Not everyone can run around the baseline for five hours. I can't.
The responsibility I have is a great thing, from helping tennis grow in Canada, but also in the future, being able to do stuff through my foundation, helping kids, and helping everyone I can, and really trying to make a difference. It would be a shame to be in the spotlight, have a voice and not do much with it.
I remember when I first started playing tennis, it was always my sister dressing me. She wanted me to look good. And then it really became a routine for me. It doesn't consume too much of my day, but it's something I always pay conscious attention to.
When I speak to people I worked with when I was young, they constantly tell me they wish their students would work half as hard as I did. I was always one to get a lot more out of myself, seeing the glass as half-empty rather than half-full.
At age 12, or even eight or nine, athletes were my role models. So when I would say I wanted to be the best, it was just because I was seeing my idols and wanted to do that. I don't think it necessarily was the most realistic thought process.
I would love to win a slam by the end of my career, and I would love to achieve other things. It's just that I am not a patient guy. When I want something, I try to get it as quickly as I can.
I used to have this superstition where I had to eat steak every night before I played, and my nutritionist told me don't do that. So after I lost that one, the other ones fell off pretty quickly.
I need to get better as a player, I need to get fitter, and I need to get better on the mental side. It's exciting for me, because there's so much I could do better. I don't feel like I've really maxed out any shot. People talk about my serve, but I think that can even get better.
It's important to me to defend the Canadian colours. And I don't just do it in tennis. I might now follow hockey as much as the average Canadian, but I support several Canadian teams. I'm a big fan of the Toronto Raptors. On top of that, I love my country, simple as that. It's a magnificent country; the people are really welcoming.
Even in Canada, I never even played ice hockey. I never skated in my life; I always did rollerblade street hockey.
I have an inability after matches are over to sort of switch off and relax completely.
At the end of the day, it's not really about the aces, it's about getting the job done.
I used to ski. I still play basketball a little bit. I'll play soccer but more in a safe environment, never on a full-grass pitch.
It's an amazing feeling: tennis is growing very quickly in Canada, and to be a big part of it is an honour.
The first three years, I don't think I would leave my hotel room outside of tennis, because I was like, 'I got to rest, I got to rest.' It was like sort of a paranoia to do everything as best as I can.
I grew up watching North American sport - basketball, hockey - so I like it when it's a little bit more energetic, rowdier, heckling either for you or against you. I think it's fun to have that in sport.
You can ask a lot of the people around me - I'm very demanding. I expect them to be as intense about my tennis on a daily basis as I am.
