Tenth seed Monfils was his dynamic self and invincible from the service line in a commanding win over 22-year-old Pouille, who was coming off three successive five-set wins including a fourth-round upset of 14-times grand slam victor Rafa Nadal.
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In the final match of the day, Novak Djokovic shrugged aside any doubts over his fitness or ring-rustiness in an accomplished 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 win over Britain’s Kyle Edmund. Djokovic will now face France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The 22 year- Lucas take the charge in the match early and finally thrashed the 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6) in a four-hour match. But Pouille broke back to 4-all.
“It’s a court I love”, he told the crowd after finishing off Pouille. At 6-6, I was not the same.
“I fought until the end”, Nadal said.
Kvitova, the Rio Olympic bronze medallist, offered more resistance in the second before meekly surrendering with a double fault on match point to gift Kerber a place in the quarter-finals.
However, Pouille said it was too early to say whether the breakthrough victory would change his career.
For Nadal, this is another crushing blow given the world number five arrived in NY buoyed after an impressive run at the Olympics. But the champion has had a slow start to his tournament play this year. But, Nadal drew close to 4-3 before Pouille surged to 6-3 to set up triple match point. I needed something more it was not there today.. “I made him work for every point”. “I congratulate my opponent, he played with better decisions than me the last couple of points”. I am out of the tournament. “That’s it”, the 30-year-old Nadal said.
“It was not a mental thing”. Monroe held in his next service game, but the Spaniards closed out the 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory to reach the quarterfinals. “But you can write the way that you want”.
Vinci was the runner-up at Flushing Meadows a year ago, reaching her first major final by stunning Serena Williams to end the American’s bid for the first calendar-year Grand Slam in more than a quarter-century. He feels the pressure, as well. “You cheer, you were behind me”.
“I’m OK with (not having a photo at first)”.
He’s satisfied with the progress, and with his attention focused on quarter-final foe Gael Monfils, happy to wait and see if his latest big win will prove to be a career-changer. Grigor Dimitrov, 6-1, 6-2, 6-1.
Pouille had gone the distance against Marco Chiudinelli and Roberto Bautista Agut in each of the previous rounds and although Nadal had cruised through without dropping a set, it was the 24th seed that advanced to a quarter-final meeting with compatriot Gael Monfils. If my return was not flawless, then he was going with the forehand and nearly did only winners.
“Of course”, Pouille said, “I was a bit exhausted today”. “I thought I came out, really, from the blocks very good, playing with a high intensity”.
Meanwhile Djokovic – who 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 – breezed into the last eight.
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Pouille came out firing, pushing Nadal back with an array of deep groundstrokes and angled shots. The Frenchman has never won an ATP tournament but has shown flashes of brilliance – including a quarter-final berth at Wimbledon. “He played well, I didn’t play bad but I didn’t play well enough”, as quoted by ATPWorldtour. “I think that’s why I’m better than the year before”.
