No 24 seed Pouille came into the match off the back of three consecutive five-set matches, the last of which was a stunning upset win over 14-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal on Sunday.
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Nadal said Pouille has a very bright future.
Fifty-two winners from Nadal – whose attacking response saw him come out a victor on 35 of 48 forays to the net – weren’t enough.
Pouille defeated Nadal in an epic five set battle 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6).
The 22-year-old then pulled 6-3 clear to open up three match points but, while Nadal saved them all, he then missed a simple forehand and Pouille pounced to snatch a momentous victory. On one such seemingly easy ball to exploit, Nadal moved forward and whipped that big forehand of his, only to see his reply smack the net.
“But you are six-all in the tiebreak”.
“The way I’m going on court is not the same as previous year”. I took my own physical trainer.
You can not go insane thinking about these kind of things. I think that’s why I’m better than the year before.
“I came out of the blocks with high intensity which was hard after waiting all day to start the match”, he said.
“I couldn’t dream better than this”, he said. “Today, I think I haven’t the chance to do it, but Lucas, hit two good tweeners”.
Playing for the first time on the 22,000-seat Arthur Ashe stadium, Pouille was energized rather than intimidated.
“At the end it was full”.
Sometimes I couldn’t even hear myself when I was saying ‘Allez, allez, allez.
Ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also advanced into the quarters as the third Frenchman defeating Jack Sock 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (7/9), 6-2.
Gael Monfils, of France, watches the flight of the ball during his match with Marcos Baghdatis, of Cyprus, during the fourth round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Sunday, Sept. 4, 2016, in NY.
Tsonga will face World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who completed a straight 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 win over Kyle Edmund despite his rustiness after walk-overs in both his earlier matches.
Edmund looked thoroughly out-classed until he managed to put together a run of three straight games in the third set that included two breaks of Djokovic’s serve.
“It’s my first match on the center court against Rafa”.
While he had a second-round walkover as Czech Jiri Vesely withdrew due to injury, he was leading 4-2 in his third-round match when Russian Mikhail Youzhny retired with a leg ailment.
He’ll need all of that in his matchup with the 10th-seeded Monfils, against whom he blew a two-set lead at last year’s Australian Open in their only previous meeting.
On Sunday, Wozniacki made only seven unforced errors, 26 fewer than Keys.
Monfils, the 10th seed, first broke to sneak a 4-3 lead which he quickly converted into taking the opening set.
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It was Pouille’s first ever victory over a top-five player, and saw him achieve back-to-back quarter-final runs after making it to the last eight at Wimbledon in June.
