Reaction from Benoit Paire, Tommy Haas, Venus Williams, Milos Raonic and Marin Cilic following day one at the US Open in New York on Monday (31st August).

Script: SOUNDBITE: (English) Benoit Paire, defeated Kei Nishikori 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 4-6:

"Yeah, today for me, when I come on court I know I can beat Nishikori. I place twice time; I lost two time, but very tough match. So when I come on the court, I say, come on. You can beat Kei. He has a game -- it's not like if I play against Roger Federer. For me it's different because he has good serve. Against Kei I know I can play, and for sure some volleys. For me it's important because I know I don't put a lot of pressure on myself. I say, Okay, for sure you can break him. So the most important thing is to feel good and to have fun. I think today that's the most important thing. When you win one tournament, for sure my first tournament during the year to Bastad. For sure I feel confidence against Kei, and with this confidence I win. But I'm really happy."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Tommy Haas, lost to Fernando Verdasco 3-6, 6-1, 6-7, 6-3, 6-1:

"It's very special to be here, obviously. Looking up as a kid, it's one of the big four you want to do really well in. It's been a privilege playing here 17 times. If I didn't have injuries could have been couple more. Happy to have been here again. Who knows? Might have been my last match. Obviously would be great to be back here next year, but it's a long way to go. With the history of my body, who knows if I make it back?"

SOUNDBITE: (English) Venus Williams, defeated Monica Puig 4-6, 7-3, 3-6:

"Yeah, I mean, the first round, you don't want to play your best tennis there, but you do want to play well. I think by the time I got to the third set I was able to clean my game up a little bit. Give her a lot of credit, too. She had a lot of great shots at the right moments, so she's a really good competitor."
SOUNDBITE: (English) Milos Raonic, defeated Tim Smyczek 6-4, 7-6, 6-1 (n the fall in form both he and fellow Canadian Eugenie Bouchard have suffered this year after breakout successes in 2014):

"I think last year it's sort of like, to put it to words, a pleasant surprise. I think this year it's been maybe people expecting things to go up, up, up as quick as it was last year. It never is that way."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Marin Cilic, defeated Guido Pella 6-3, 7-6, 7-6:

"Just feeling that I have won last year over here gives me more belief, you know, that I'm on a special place and that I can play my best tennis over here."