NEW YORK: Who said what at the US Open the other day, the 12th day of the 2022 championships at Flushing Meadows.
“We are in the semi-final of a Grand Slam, we have to give everything we have inside, we have to fight until the last ball, it doesn’t matter if you’re fighting for five hours or six hours. It doesn’t matter, you have to give everything on court.”
— Carlos Alcaraz after his 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 semi-final win over Frances Tiafoe. “I gave everything I had for the last two weeks. Honestly I came here wanting to win the US Open, I feel like I let you guys down. This one really hurts.”
— Tiafoe after his epic semi-final in which he saved three match points.
“Good time to be retired.” Â — Former ATP pro Ivan Ljubicic after seeing Alcaraz win a breath-taking point in the 12th game of the first set against Tiafoe.
“Like, for instance, after the set point when I won the first set, we are both probably like dying because we’re out of breath. At least I felt my knees or my legs were sort of shaking. But I tried to not show Karen that I’m tired because I don’t want him to think that, ‘This is tiring for Casper’.”
– Casper Ruud on having to ‘act’ sometimes to gain an edge over an opponent.
“I think I’ve never had a rally of 55 shots. That was a crazy rally on set point. I felt in the game. I felt pumped but it’s a painful one to lose a set with this point.”
– Karen Khachanov on the 55-shot rally which he lost on set point in the opening tiebreak of his semi-final defeat to Casper Ruud.
“What can I do? If they will not allow us to enter Europe, there is nothing I can do about it, right? To be honest, I don’t read the news. I don’t like to read the news lately. I just go one tournament at a time.”
— Khachanov on potentially tougher rules being discussed by the European Union to restrict the movement of Russian athletes in reponse to the war in Ukraine.
“We felt and we wanted to just show a sign of respect and acknowledgement of the situation we are in because it’s a huge moment in our history.”
Britain’s doubles champion Joe Salisbury on wearing a black armband as a mark of respect for Queen Elizabeth II following the monarch’s death. Defeated rival Neal Skupski opted for a black ribbon.
