Key quotes from the second day of the US Open at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre in Flushing Meadows on Monday:
"I don't know how it looked from outside, but from inside my feeling was that I was hitting normal. I was playing pretty normal, playing my style. The arm, the wrist, everything felt great."
– Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, whose first-round victory marked his return from a wrist injury that sidelined him for more than four months.
"I think the good thing for me is not looking back no matter what, if it's good or bad, because I feel a good result can also stop you from performing well because you're basically focusing on the past. So I never, like, look back.
"If I win the tournament or lose the tournament, for me today is a new day and I have to be focused just staying in the moment."
– Two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka on her philosophy of focusing on the present.
"In the tournament, I want to keep it long for sure. Then I don't know. But once I start with a hairstyle or something, I just have to keep it until the tournament is finished."
– A slightly superstitious Carlos Alcaraz explains he'll stick with the new-look long locks he's sporting at the US Open.
"Today was my birthday, so maybe that took a little bit of the stress off. I knew that maybe like getting messages from and texting my friends back was a good distraction for me actually, since it was the first round.
"Maybe this is a good thing that these two align on the same day, the first round and my birthday."
– American Amanda Anisimova, who hit 25 winners on her 25th birthday to beat Ashlyn Krueger 6-1, 6-3 in the first round of the US Open.
"I just don't know any other sport where you have to start that late. I definitely think there's room for improvement there."
– Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, who fell to Sofia Kenin in a first-round match that started at 12:13 am, beating the previous record for the US Open's latest-starting match by six minutes.
"I don't think I should have to. My mind is fully focused on that, so I'm going to recover from this completely insane evening and get ready for the next one."
– Venus Williams, 46, says she isn't thinking about what her tennis future holds beyond playing US Open doubles with her sister Serena.
"The only thing I can see this year, in my last year when I announced it, is the love I receive in every single match I played and every tournament I play. So I feel super grateful with that.
"It's also showing me that maybe I did the right thing all those 20 years by always try to give, always try to fight, always showing up, always trying to do my best, always trying to push my own limits in the sport."
– Three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka, who bade farewell to Grand Slam tennis with a first-round loss to Matteo Berrettini.