Opening day of the US Open offered upsets, pressure and plenty of reaction to Serena Williams' night match from fellow players.
Here's what the players are saying that caught our ears on Day 1 of the US Open.
More: Carlos Alcaraz Q&A
"Probably the only pressure is that I know if I'm not gonna play good here for whatever reason, that people might say,Yeah, defending champion lost, whatever. I'm not reallysensible to this. Like, I know what I have to do. I knowthat I want to play well and if I don't do it, I will not care thatI won it last year, I will just be disappointed that this year didn't work out my way.
"And for sure it gives me a lot of confidence, because I always played good here. I remember last year were somecrazy matches. I mean, to be honest, all of them werereally high level from me. That's what I want to continuedoing this year. Always loved playing in US Open, so Iwant to continue love playing this year."—World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev on the pressure of defending his US Open title.
"Getting to a [Grand Slam] final, I think people expect you to get over that final hurdle, and that's something I expect of myself toobecause I know I feel it in me that I can repeat it and do itagain. Now I know what that nervousness feels like. Ididn't expect myself to be so nervous before the final. Now that I know what to expect, I expect myself to at least dobetter, maybe not win next time but do better.
"And regarding the pressure, like, I learned in my life that you just have to accept it, you can't ignore it. It's going tobe there. You feel it. Everybody else feels it for you. So instead of trying to say, I'm not nervous, I'm not this, I'm saying, I am nervous, I do feel pressure, I do feel this.Now once you acknowledge a problem, you can solve it."—Coco Gauff after her 6-2, 6-3 US Open first-round win over Leolia Jeanjean.
"I think it's quite similar so far. Maybe the bigger courts area little bit slower, like used to be every year. But today wasshocking. It's like it's hot and humid out there, and wewere sweating like hell. I mean, we all know US Open canbe very tricky with conditions, but today was a good firsttest.Yeah, made it through and it's very important."—Cincinnati champion Caroline Garcia after scoring a 6-2, 6-4 sweep of lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova.
"For me as much as I enjoy and love what I'm doing, I want to keep going a little bit for sure. Will need to have some result too, because you cannot just keep being on tour and losing. But I see that I'm playing and feeling better. Even if I'm not winning yet, I know I will be back winning matches soon. That's for sure.
"Yeah, I know that I'm closer to the end. That's for sure. It'sa reality. I will never be able to play as well as I did in my career, because I'm getting older, but I believe that I still have some good and big results in me, and that's why I keep gonna fight a little bit."—Stan Wawrinka, who retired from his US Open first-round match after losing the first two sets to Corentin Moutet 6-4, 7-6(7).
"She made quite a few funny comments when we were playing doubles together, actually, sort of jokes that I wasn't really expecting. I didn't know her particularly well...
"That was something that was actually, it was really nice for me, because I wasnervous playing with her, obviously. I hadn't played loads in the buildup to it. The fact that she was, I felt like she had a good sense of humor, anyway, and cracked a few jokes certainly early in the partnership helped me quite a lot.
"I can't share them in here, because they were of that nature (smiling), but, yeah, I thought that was cool."—Andy Murray reflects on his Wimbledon doubles partnership with Serena Williams.
Photo credit: Pete Staples/USTA/US Open