The 30-year-old Spaniard, the victor of 14 majors including two in NY, suffered a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (8/6) defeat to world number 25 Pouille in a four-hour last-16 epic. But Pouille, a 22-year-old with flashy strokes, presented a much sterner challenge in the fourth round, pushing Nadal to the limit over 4 hours, 7 minutes of tense – and intense – exchanges.
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He has played three consecutive five-set matches in NY to advance to his second consecutive major quarterfinal.
“I was very aggressive all the match and at 6-6 (in the tiebreak) I didn’t want to miss”, Pouille said after the match.
In other matches, French No. 9 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga topped 26th-seeded American Jack Sock 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (7-9), 6-2.
The two-time champion was unable to capitalise on a 1-0 lead in the fifth set against the record third Frenchman to reach the last eight in NY – a first in the Open tennis era. But I need something else, I need something more that was not there today. The 22-year-old Frenchman benefited from a netted Nadal forehand before finally converting his fourth match point at 7-6 with a down-the-line forehand victor.
He will next take on World No. 1 and the tournament’s top seed, Serb Novak Djokovic, who Sunday night easily won against British up-and-comer Kyle Edmund 6-2, 6-1, 6-4. He opened the same score-line in the second set and which point rain forced both players to take an extended break until the brand new roof was closed to protect Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Lucas Pouille of France (left) shakes hands with Rafael Nadal of Spain after their US Open Men’s Singles match at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in NY.
“He’s a better player than me, definitely”.
Nadal, however, while complimentary of Pouille’s performance, would not go as far as to say the Frenchman is a Grand Slam victor in-waiting.
Monfils’ semifinal opponent will be the victor of Tuesday’s late match between top-ranked Novak Djokovic and ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, another Frenchman.
In arguably the match of the tournament so far, Pouille squandered three match points before finally sealing a 6-1 2-6 6-4 3-6 7-6 win over the two-time champion.
“It is my first match on the centre court against Rafa”.
“I felt I played a little bad, to be honest”, said Kvitova. When the break for 3-1 arrived, Pouille’s fate was all but sealed. I will keep working to try and find it.
“I couldn’t dream better than this”, he said.
In the women’s draw, Germany’s Angelique Kerber, the Australian Open champion, saw off the tricky challenge of two-time Wimbledon victor Petra Kvitová of the Czech Republic.
Against Tsonga he mustered only five aces and was broken six times by the 2008 Australian Open runner-up, who has reached at least the semi-finals of every Grand Slam except this one.
But victory over Nadal is nothing short of sensational, and it sets up a tough-but-winnable meeting with compatriot Gaël Monfils in the quarter-finals.
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The seventh-seeded Italian topped 99th-ranked Lesia Tsurenko 7-6 (5), 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows for the fourth time in five years.
