The China Mail - Who said what: French Open day 1

"It has been unforgettable, plenty of emotions for a guy like me that, you know, I don't love these kind of things because I'm still a little bit shy for all this stuff. You know, I don't like a lot to be the centre of attention for these things. It was enough when I was playing tennis. But I enjoyed it, honestly."

-- Rafael Nadal after a ceremony honouring his career was held on Court Philippe Chatrier, with Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray attending.

"To win 14 Grand Slams in the same place, here in Roland Garros, that can happen. But gonna take a while, at least 30 more years."

-- Nadal on whether anyone can break his record of 14 French Open titles.

"My good friend Andy, we were not in touch for a while, the day that Arsenal beat Real Madrid, when the match just finished, after one second, he text me a message, telling me... 'Hey, Rafa, haven't spoken to you in a while. Just checking in to make sure you are okay'.

"So honestly, took me like five seconds to realise what I was reading, because at the beginning, I said, 'Okay, he's such a nice guy. He's asking about how I'm doing, family'. After five seconds, I said, 'This is British sense of humour."

-- Nadal on a text message sent to him by Murray after Arsenal knocked his beloved Real Madrid out of the Champions League.

"I have to say that probably because of the environment and in the history of European countries, we are much tougher. Whoever got through the tough stuff, they, like, mentally and physically, they much stronger than probably, not like the rest of the world, but most of the girls on tour."

-- World number one Aryna Sabalenka on the success of eastern European players on the WTA Tour.

"Of course it's complicated because every single day there is rockets landing in Ukraine. Each time I speak to my parents or my grandmother that are in Ukraine, always bad news."

-- Ukraine's Elina Svitolina on having to face Russian players despite the conflict in her home country.

"When I was a lot younger watching tennis a lot on TV, I always saw Serena kind of winning everything. It was easy for me to look up to her as a role model. She was such an icon at the time. I really loved the way she used to play. When I was younger, I tried to, like, hit like her and tried to hit the ball hard."

-- Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko, who beat Lulu Sun in her first ever Grand Slam match, on being inspired by Serena Williams.

D.Peng--ThChM