Playing his third consecutive five-set match, Pouille, still looking for his first ATP Tour title, showed that his quarter-final advance earlier this season at Wimbledon was no fluke. “And then 6-3 in the tiebreak, he came back”, Pouille said.
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Fifty-two winners from Nadal whose attacking response saw him come out a victor on 35 of 48 forays to the net werent enough. Nadal fell to Lucas Pouille 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6) in a fourth-round battle that lasted four hours and seven minutes.
Nadal – who came to the net far more often than usual – wouldn’t concede yet, though, and one forehand victor by him plus two tight forehands by Pouille evened the score.
“This is my first match on the center court against Rafa [Nadal], so I couldn’t dream better than this”, Pouille said on the court after the match.
Pouille earned the biggest win of his career, wrapping it up with a forehand down the line.
At Wimbledon a year ago, he fell to Germany’s Dustin Brown who was outside the top 100 at the time. I took my own physical trainer. That’s it. You can not go insane thinking about these kind of things. And I think, as I said after Nadal’s match, he’s in very good form.
However, Pouille said it was too early to say whether the breakthrough victory would change his career.
Pouille, who has now won three successive five-setters to reach the last eight, wasn’t intimidated by the massive Ashe stage, even though he only practiced on it previous year.
When he reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon this year, many tipped the 22-year-old Lucas Pouille as a star of the future.
“At the end it was full”.
Gael Monfils maintained his impressive streak at this year’s US Open by moving into the semi-finals with a 6-4 6-3 6-3 victory over Lucas Pouille.
Also through in NY are the French pair of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils, who beat Jack Sock and Marcos Baghdatis respectively.
It is the first time since 1947 that three Frenchmen have reached the quarterfinals of one Grand Slam.
Tsonga made that one break of serve but his was under constant threat, as Novak created 9 break chances and took 4, breaking his rival twice in every set.
Since losing in last year’s French Open quarterfinals, Nadal has failed to make it beyond the fourth round at a major.
The Serb advanced to the quarters with a comprehensive 6-2 6-1 6-4 win over Britain’s Kyle Edmund.
“I fought to the end today but I needed something that was not there. We work, I think, harder”, he said.
“Just enjoyed the experience”, the Johannesburg-born Briton said.
It’s tough to know exactly how well he’s playing at the moment, simply because no one has seen him on court all that much lately: less than 6 1/2 hours through five rounds.
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In the US Open’s best match so far, Rafael Nadal was beaten by 24th-seeded Lucas Pouille of France 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6) in a four-hour match ending on Sunday evening in NY.
