Pouille possesses all the necessary weapons to do battle at the elite level, including a big serve, a powerful forehand and backhand, an attacking mentality and steely nerves. “But you are 6-all in the tiebreak”.
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In a thrilling showdown that lasted more than four hours, the pair produced the kind of all-court tennis that will make it a strong contender for match of the year honours when the season comes to a close in a couple of months.
I put myself in a position to have the victor and I had the mistake.
“You can not go insane thinking about these kinds of things, no?”
Pouille started well, making good use of his serve, but Monfils wore him down in the middle of the first set to break at 4-3 before inconsistencies got the better of Pouille as he lost the opener.
“I’m trying to improve, of course, my mental side, because I know I need to stay focused on my game, trying to be here in this moment and not thinking about what’s happened and just thinking about the positive things”, Kerber said. “I need something more that was not there today”.
In the climactic tiebreaker, Nadal fought off Pouille’s triple match point at 6-3, but the Frenchman won the final two points, the last coming on a blistering forehand victor.
Pouille, 22, said his hard passage to the last eight, which included three five-setters, took its toll.
“I think it was the best atmosphere I played on a center court”, he said of the 22,000-seat cathedral of tennis.
“At the end it was full”.
“But I’m trying to not put pressure on myself, because I know I have to win a few more matches to reach the No. 1”. Playing steadily, and with only a dose of the spectacular, Monfils reached his first major semifinal since 2008 by beating an error-prone Pouille 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in an all-French quarterfinal.
Kerber’s victory set up a last eight clash with Italy’s Roberta Vinci, last year’s surprise runner-up, who advanced with a 7-6 (5) 6-2 win over Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko.
In his career, a succession of injuries – usually involving either his knees or wrists – has seen him miss nine Grand Slam events.
After his streak of four consecutive major championships – the first time a man had done that in almost 50 years – was capped by his initial French Open title, Djokovic was upset in the third round at Wimbledon.
In one of the biggest surprises of the tournament so far, Nadal was unable to reach the quarter-finals at a grand slam once again – his last last-eight appearance coming at the 2015 French Open.
He joins ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and 10th ranked Gael Monfils who also had fourth-round victories Sunday.
Edmund looked outclassed until he put together a run of three straight games in the third set that included two breaks of Djokovic’s serve.
“You can be the best, but one match is enough [to lose]”.
Nadal lost because of some uncharacteristic unforced errors.
Wozniacki is back in the last-eight of a Slam for the first time since making the semi-finals in NY in 2014.
Tenth seed Monfils motored into the quarters with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 dismissal of Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus to launch the French advance at the year’s last grand slam championship.
The 30-year-old mixed his typical showmanship with a professional steel as he came through 6-4 6-3 6-3.
The former French No. 1 though will be relying on his experience to make it count in his third US Open quarter-final on Tuesday.
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But after prevailing in a fifth set tie-break, the engaging Frenchman was also reluctant to say it was not the launchpad that would send him into another tennis orbit.
