Say what?! US Open day eight best quotes

As the US Open quarterfinal line-up was set, the stars were not holding back in their post-match press conferences…

“He has very attractive game. No surprise that people like him.”
Dominic Thiem understands Juan Martin del Potro’s appeal

“I’m really happy about the loss. I cannot wait to play the next tournament now (smiling).”
A sarcastic Dominic Thiem after he was asked whether he was frustrated to lose after holding match points

“They like one guy who never give ups, and he’s trying to play tennis. You can see my backhand is not good enough yet, but I’m still trying. I think the people likes that.”
Juan Martin del Potro explains why he thinks he is a fan favourite

MATCH REPORT: Del Potro recovers to beat Thiem

“I think I played a solid match, obviously. Not many mistakes. I didn’t see the statistics, so I don’t know how many unforced errors I had, but my feeling is not many.”
Rafael Nadal is happy with his form

“I always wanted to be young. Even when I was 8 years old, I was not very happy to when I was, my birthday, to be 9. Still the same. I am 31, and I am not happy when my birthday going to be 32. I am happy being young, no? I don’t want to get older. For the moment, I didn’t find the way to stop that watch (smiling).”
Rafael Nadal is not a fan of aging

RELATED: Nadal sets up Rublev clash

“Nothing. I’m just going to try to enjoy, and that’s it. This is going to be good challenge for me to see how far I am from top players, and how much more I need to work. So we’ll see.”
Andrey Rublev on his thoughts on playing Rafael Nadal next

“All the last year it was absolutely full of depress, full of tears. Now I’m happy. It’s much better now.”
19-year-old Andrey Rublev reflects on his pro career so far

“I didn’t expect that. I hope to qualify and keep going, see what happens with my tennis. Yeah, it’s pretty amazing where I am now compared to where I was few months ago. It’s great.”
Kaia Kanepi on her quarterfinal run

“Probably walking with my dog or reading books (smiling). Figuring out what I want to do in my life.”
Kaia Kanepi reflects on where she was 12 months ago

“There is another really good generation under 21, and I’m curious to see who’s going to be the best.”
David Goffin is keeping a close eye on the #NextGen

GALLERY: Best US Open day eight photos

“I was just trying to, you know, stay in my zone as long as I can and didn’t wait for the moment where she can maybe get back in the match, but that didn’t happen.”
Karolina Pliskova on her 46-minute fourth round win

“I’m frustrated almost every tournament, almost every match. Even on good matches, I still find something what was negative and what was wrong.”
World No.1 Karolina Pliskova admits to being her own harshest critic

“It’s pretty mundane in my life. I don’t have much going on. Hopefully it will start to change where I will have more things coming my way to promote, be a part of, and that’s definitely my agent’s job to get that done.”
CoCo Vandeweghe’s agent has some work to do

“At the end of every tournament, there’s only one winner. Most people have to deal with a loss at some point.”
CoCo Vandeweghe is keeping it real

RELATED: US Open day eight wrap

“I just felt something, sort of my muscle being tight at the back. Sort of my quad, I guess. I don’t know what you call it (smiling).”
Turns out Roger Federer’s weakness is his physiology knowledge

“I went from Tiafoe then to the oldies, so that was good (laughter). Yeah, back to the ’80s. It’s great, you know. I always said it: our generation was strong. Now a lot of them are starting to stop or have stopped now. But we have a lot of 30 plus players years old on the tour, which is great.”
Roger Federer enjoys playing long-time peers