By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday September 1, 2024
Find out what they players were saying during a scintillating week one in Flushing Meadows.
Photo Source: USTA/ US Open
New York—Week one of the US Open has come and gone. Before we get into the “business end” of the 2024 US Open. Let’s have a spin through the best quotes of week one.
1. “I have played some of the worst tennis I have ever played, honestly, serving by far the worst ever.”
– Novak Djokovic, after suffering his earliest loss at the US Open since 2006.
2. “Nobody is going to ask me about my bangs? I just cut them.”
– Donna Vekic wanted to talk about her haircut more than her tennis during her press conference after her third-round win.
3. “I also know who is my friend and who is not my friend, no, because my friends, they know that I would never do that.”
– Jannik Sinner on the fallout from news that he had twice tested positive for a banned substance earlier in the season.
4. “I think when you're a kid, you're just told to fight until the end. I mean, that's sort of rule one. I've done that pretty consistently for my career. It sort of paid off a bit today.”
– Dan Evans, after defeating Karen Khachanov in the longest match in US Open history at five hours and 35 minutes.
5. “Obviously I've talked a lot about wanting to have children and starting a family, and being excited about that, and just kind of stepping away from being in the spotlight. The idea of not traveling 40 weeks out of the year. I think that kind of sounds good at this point in my career with all the travel that I've done, even though I have enjoyed it a lot.”
– American Danielle Collins, who played her last US Open in 2024
6. “People tell me that they’re jealous of how even-keeled I can be during a match. It maybe would be more fun if I could be a Ben or even a Coco or a Tiafoe, but I just can’t. Even when I do get really fired up, it makes me tired.”
– Jessica Pegula after her second round win at the Open.
7. “When I’m on the court, my mind is boiling, constantly boiling. Sometimes it’s frustration, sometimes with good emotions. It’s like tea: It just comes out, comes out even if I don't want it to. It just boils.”
Daniil Medvedev, whose mind is a lot like the New York humidity, apparently.
8. "I think I almost had a heart attack there. But yeah, it was really tough match. She was playing very high level."
– Paula Badosa, who is back in form in Flushing Meadows, after defeating Elena-Gabriela Ruse to reach the round of 16.
9. “Many years, time pass very, very quick. I'm very happy how I did here and also how the crowd treat me, you know, all these years. At the end it was an end that I always dream, you know, on a big court against a big opponent like Gael.”
– Diego Schwartzman, who said goodbye to the US Open with a first-round loss to Gael Monfils.
10. “New York is busy, is street style. I mean, it's different. I like it.”
China’s Zheng Qinwen, who seems to be happy wherever she goes these days.
11. “Of course I want it to be at night but at the same time I was like, well, I lost at night last year so maybe just a little bit something different. You think about these things a little bit too. I'm not saying that out loud. I can say it now because the match is over.”
– Frances Tiafoe, on the fact that his match with Ben Shelton was put on during the day in Arthur Ashe Stadium, for his third-round match with Ben Shelton.
12. "I think that the thing I will miss the most is this feeling after winning a great match, it's not really comparable to anything else. You don't really get this feeling, in my case, in life outside of tennis, because it's, like a real high. It's like being on drugs a little bit, I guess. I know that probably this feeling is not coming back again, so this is for sure also the one I'm going to miss the most."
– Dominic Thiem on saying farewell to Grand Slam tennis.
13. “I thought since I've been on tour, today was probably the best that anyone has returned my serve that I have seen. From early in the match, there was one where I went big out wide, like 130, and he cracked it down the line clean, hit the baseline, and I was, like, Oh, one of those days.”
– Ben Shelton, with praise for Frances Tiafoe’s return.