Diatchenko, who wore a walking boot to her news conference, said she hurt herself running sprints before the match and that she felt "sharp pain" chasing a backhand during a point. "Today, for me, itэs a good day". Paire had boasted some excellent results coming into the match, having won his first title in Bastad recently, whilst gradually forcing his ranking back into the top 40.
"Maybe he was a little bit nervous", Paire said, noting that perhaps the pressure of being a finalist previous year got to Nishikori.
"I couldn't play, couldn't move, couldn't do anything", said Monfils, twice a quarterfinalist at the U.S. Open and a crowd favorite at Flushing Meadows.
Nishikori enjoyed his highest seed for any Grand Slam event all-too briefly, walking off Louis Armstrong Stadium with his head down after his third first-round exit in New York in five years.
"To beat Nishikori for me, was impossible to imagine this", said Paire, who entered the match with an uninspiring 2-16 record against top-10 ranked opponents.
David Ferrer is also in the second quarter and he recovered from losing the first set to defeat Radu Albot in what was his first match since before Wimbledon.
Japanese Nishikori bowed out of the US Open, the tournament's first big upset this year, as he succumbed to the big-serving Frenchman Benoit Paire 4-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 4-6.
By the time the evening session began, Ana Ivanovic, the seventh seed and a former world No. 1, and Karolina Pliskova, the eighth seed, were amongst the women seeded players to have been dismissed. It would likely be a different story had Stan Wawrinka not beaten Djokovic in the French Open final, as he might have been searching for the calendar year Grand Slam as well.
The popular 33-year-old Mardy Fish announced that he would retire after the Open following a brief and courageous return to the United States hard courts this summer. He landed 75 percent of his first serves in the box, 21 percent more than Souza, with 54 percent in.
It was Nishikori, however, who generated the most opening-day buzz as his hopes of making another scintillating run in the US Open came to a quick end.
That left 12th seed Belinda Bencic - who ousted Bulgarian Sesil Karatancheva 6-1, 6-2 - as the top-rated foe in Williams' half of the draw. The 2008 French Open victor fell 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.
Even before Serena Williams set foot in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night, her path through the U.S. Open to complete the Grand Slam became a lot easier thanks to losses by other top women.
After the injury-forced withdrawal of Russian third seed Maria Sharapova, Ivanovic had been Williams top-ranked rival.
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