Lucas Pouille, of France, reacts after beating Rafael Nadal, of Spain, during the fourth round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Sunday, Sept. 4, 2016, in NY.
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This is the first time since 1927 that three Frenchmen have reached the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open or its predecessor, the U.S. Championships.
Rafael Nadal is well known for his success in majors. “I think that’s why I’m better than the year before”.
Top seed Novak Djokovic, starved for competitive action, feasted against unseeded Briton Kyle Edmund, gobbling up a large serving of points in a 6-2 6-1 6-4 romp on Sunday that put him into the U.S. Open quarter-finals.
Monfils said: ‘I’m happy with my performance.
Since losing in last year’s French Open quarterfinals, Nadal has failed to make it beyond the fourth round at a major.
Gael Monfils reached his first Grand Slam semi-final in eight years with victory in the all-French quarter-final clash at the US Open.
“He’s a better player than me, definitely”.
This match would go the distance, and need a fifth set tiebreak to be settled, and it goes to the Frenchman when he fires this victor into the corner.
It was not the first time this fortnight Pouille has pulled all the right strings in pressure-packed moments.
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.
“The problem is arriving at six-all in the fifth, I should be winning before”, said Nadal, who opened the fifth set with a break but couldn’t hold onto it, dropping his own serve in the eighth to make it 4-4 and set the stage for the tiebreaker.
Also through in NY are the French pair of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils, who beat Jack Sock and Marcos Baghdatis respectively.
More seesaw action was in store, with Pouille going up 6-3 in the tiebreaker but then squandering all three of those match points, the last of them on a forehand that sailed well over the baseline. I am ready to keep playing. “I need something more that was not there today”. That’s what I care about, that I know that I can do it. At 6-6, I was not the same.
After a hard start to his summer, missing Roland Garros with a viral infection and losing his first-round match at Wimbledon, Monfils has found his very best form here to win 15 consecutive sets. “I think he was better than me today”. I don’t know. Djokovic. 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.
Konta, bidding to become the first British woman in the quarter-finals here since Jo Durie in 1983, never recovered from a poor start.
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The other quarterfinal in the bottom half of the draw sees German second seed Angelique Kerber face Roberta Vinci, the Italian seventh seed.
