U.S. OPEN TENNIS NEWS – POUILLE TAKES FIVE-SET MAGIC TO NEW LEVEL, STUNS RAFAEL NADAL IN FOURTH ROUND BY RICKY DIMON

Written by: Staff on 4th September 2016

U.S. OPEN TENNIS NEWS - POUILLE TAKES FIVE-SET MAGIC TO NEW LEVEL, STUNS RAFAEL NADAL IN FOURTH ROUND BY RICKY DIMON

epa05524539 Lucas Pouille of France hits a return to Rafael Nadal of Spain on the seventh day of the US Open Tennis Championships at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 04 September 2016. The US Open runs through September 11. EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT |

Rafael Nadal’s 2016 U.S. Open came to a close on Sunday evening, but not before the Arthur Ashe Stadium faithful were treated to a five-set thriller that lasted into the scheduled night session. 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.

As a result, only two of the proverbial “Big Four” are still lasting in Flushing Meadows. Roger Federer missed the tournament with a knee injury and Nadal, who was looking like a serious title contender through three rounds, has suddenly joined Federer on the sidelines. Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray remain alive and well.

Following a split of the first four sets against Pouille, it looked throughout much of the fifth like Nadal would be among those advancing to the quarterfinals. The fifth-ranked Spaniard broke right away in the decider and consolidated his lead en route to 4-3. He even led 30-0 while trying to hold for 5-3, but Pouilled ended up breaking to get back on serve.

A tiebreaker eventually had to decide the whole thing, at which point Pouille raced to 6-3 advantage. Nadal fought off two match points on his serve and dramatically reached 6-6 when Pouille ended a rally by overcooking a forehand well past the baseline. 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 winner.

“I wanted to take my chance to be very aggressive; try to play with my forehand, and so that’s what I did [on] the match point,” Pouille explained.

“I think he played a good match,” Nadal said. “He started so strong. (It) was a very, very close match; anything could happen. Just congratulate the opponent that probably he played with better decisions than me (on) the last couple of points.”

Rafael Nadal of Spain hits a return to Lucas Pouille of France on the seventh day of the US Open Tennis Championships at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 04 September 2016. The US Open runs through September 11. EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT

It was not the first time this fortnight Pouille has pulled all the right strings in pressure-packed moments. In fact, he has played 19 of a possible 20 total sets through four matches. After taking care of Mikhail Kukushkin in five sets, the 24th seed need five to get past both Marco Chiudinelli and Roberto Bautista Agut.

Pouille now owns 25 of his 40 career ATP-level match victories this season and will likely climb to at least 18th in the world even if he loses an all-French quarterfinal showdown against Gael Monfils.

“He’s in a good position,” Nadal concluded. “As I say, he’s in a good position to give [himself] chances to be in the top 10 position, fighting for bigger things. But everybody wants to do it. (It’s) not only Lucas (who is) going to have the motivation to do it. There [are] a lot of young players that want to do it, too. I want to do it, too, again. I believe that Roger (Federer) will want to do it again.”

Nadal and Federer may, in fact, get back to their title-winning ways at majors at some point; but that remains to be seen. All we know right now is it won’t happen in 2016. For that, Nadal supporters can blame Pouille.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Lucas Pouille of France reacts as he plays Rafael Nadal of Spain on the seventh day of the US Open Tennis Championships at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 04 September 2016. The US Open runs through September 11. EPA/ANDREW GOMBERT

Topics: 10sballs.com, Arthur Ashe Stadium, Atp World Tour, Flushing Meadows, Lucas Pouille, Rafael Nadal, Ricky Dimon, Sports, Tennis News, U.S. Open