NEW YORK-Two trips to Grand Slam quarter-finals-including Sunday’s US Open upset of 14-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal-has taken any lingering sting out of Lucas Pouille’s failure to make France’s Olympic team.
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Kerber won a battle of grand slam champion when the second seed powered her way into the quarterfinals with a 6-3 7-5 win over Petra Kvitova.
The defeat leaves Nadal – forced out of the French Open third round with a wrist injury that also saw him miss Wimbledon – without at least one Grand Slam quarter-final appearance for the first time since he was a teenaged tour newcomer in 2004.
The Serb kept himself busy on practice courts but looked elated to cut loose against an actual opponent, making Edmund the target of his arsenal of rifled groundstroke, angled volleys, pinpoint passing shots, lobs and drop shots.
Fifty-two winners from Nadal whose attacking response saw him come out a victor on 35 of 48 forays to the net werent enough.
He led by a break at 1-0 and 4-2 in the fifth set, but Pouille broke back to 4-all, and eventually converted his fourth match point in the tiebreaker with a gutsy forehand victor to close a 16-stroke exchange.
Then he smacked a forehand into the net to give Pouille one more chance and the French player pounced on it with a blazing forehand that kissed the sideline.
Nadal acknowledged that his sloppy forehand was “a big mistake”. “But you are 6-all in the tiebreak”. I just congratulate the opponent that probably he played with better decisions than me the last couple of points. I put [myself] in a position to have the victor, and I had the mistake. “You can not go insane thinking about these kind of things, no?”
“In terms of energy, in terms of motivation, I was great”, was Nadal’s description of his own game. “I came out of the blocks well and started with the right intensity”. “I need something more that was not there today”. Except for the outlier Ken Rosewall (who, at 37, was the oldest champion in Open history when he won the 1972 Australian Open), Nadal would appear to be at a critical moment – he’ll turn 31 in June of next year. “I thought I came out, really, from the blocks very good, playing with a high intensity”.
Pouille next tackles 10th-seeded compatriot Gael Monfils, a 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 victor over Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.
Tsonga, a 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-2 victor over the last United States man in the field, No. 26 Jack Sock, now plays No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Rafael Nadal is leaving the tournament, this year was the first one when Rafa has failed to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final.
The Spanish tennis star and 14-time Grand Slam victor thus, failed to reach the quarterfinals.
Djokovic needed treatment on his arm but was still too good for Briton Kyle Edmund with a straight-sets victory.
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Winning the final point proved easier said than done as nerves began to set in and the third of Pouille’s match points was wasted with a long forehand which came after a first serve had nearly hit the baseline. Djokovic had a second-round walkover as Czech Jiri Vesely withdrew due to injury, and was leading 4-2 in his third-round match when Russian Mikhail Youzhny retired with a leg ailment making it six days since his last full match. Andy Murray meets Grigor Dimitrov, Stan Wawrinka takes on Ilya Marchenko and Kei Nishikori collides with Ivo Karlovic.
