Pouille stuns Nadal
>... to lead French charge into US Open quarterfinals <
LUCAS POUILLE outlasted 14-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal in a five-set classic yesterday to lead a trio of French men into the quarterfinals of the US Open.
Pouille, 22 and ranked 25th in the world, lived up to the promise of his quarterfinal run at Wimbledon, emerging from a roller-coaster ride with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (8-6) triumph over the Spanish superstar.
The defeat leaves Nadal without at least one Grand Slam quarterfinal appearance for the first time since he was a teenaged tour newcomer in 2004.
Pouille came out firing, pushing Nadal back with an array of deep groundstrokes and angled shots.
The taut battle came down to the fifth-set tiebreaker and Nadal, trailing 3-6, showed his mettle by saving three match points – the third on Pouille’s serve.
Then he smacked a forehand into the net to give Pouille one more chance and the French player pounced on it with a blazing forehand that kissed the sideline.
“I wanted to take my chance to be very aggressive, try to play with my forehand, and so that’s what I did at the (last) match point,” Pouille said.
Nadal acknowledged that his sloppy forehand was “a big mistake”.
“But you are six-all in the tiebreak. I played the right point. I put myself in a position to have the winner and I had the mistake. That’s it. You cannot go crazy thinking about these kind of things.
“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.
The four-hour, sevenminute contest entranced the crowd in Arthur Ashe stadium, where Pouille recalled admiring Nadal as a youngster.
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 last year.
“I think it was the best atmosphere I played on a centre court,” he said of the 22,000-seat cathedral of tennis.
“At the end it was full. Sometimes I couldn’t even hear myself when I was saying Allez, allez, allez.”
Pouille next tackles 10thseeded compatriot Gael Monfils, a 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 winner over Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.
Ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also advanced, downing Jack Sock, the last American man left in the draw, 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (7-9), 6-2.
It’s the first time since 1947 that three French men have reached the quarterfinals of one Grand Slam.
The 23-year-old Sock, seeded 26th, hadn’t faced a break point in surprising 2014 champion Marin Cilic in the third round.
Against Tsonga he mustered only five aces and was broken six times by the 2008 Australian Open runnerup, who has reached at least the semifinals of every Grand Slam except this one.
Tsonga next faces world No. 1 and defending champion Novak Djokovic, who powered past 84th-ranked Kyle Edmund of Britain 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.
Djokovic had a secondround walkover as Czech Jiri Vesely withdrew due to injury, and was leading 4-2 in his third-round match when Russian Mikhail Youzhny retired with a leg ailment, making it six days since his last full match.
The Serb kept himself busy on the practice courts but was happy to cut loose against an actual opponent, making 21year-old Edmund the target of his arsenal of rifled groundstrokes, angled volleys, pinpoint passing shots, lobs and drop shots.
“Feels great to play a match,” Djokovic said in an oncourt interview. “I haven’t played much tennis.
“Baseline shots, both forehand and backhand, were working very well. Think I was most pleased with that.”
The world No. 1, who was bothered by a left wrist injury that may have been a factor in his third-round exit from Wimbledon and first-round loss at the Rio Olympics, had his right arm and elbow area treated during a medical timeout at 2-1 in the third set against Edmund, but Djokovic downplayed it.
“I needed a little bit of massage,” he said of treatment similar to that which he received during his openinground match against Jerzy Janowicz of Poland.
“I feel great at this moment physically; mentally as well. I’m motivated. So coming into the second week of a grand slam quarterfinals... it’s exactly where I want to be.” – Reuters