French tennis star Lucas Pouille believes one of the keys in his big win over Milos Raonic was him not panicking and staying focused on the court. Pouille, seeded at No. 28, defeated 16th-seeded Raonic 7-6 (4) 6-3 6-7 (2) 6-4 to reach the Australian Open semi-final.
Raonic got off to a dominant 6-0 third-set tie-break lead and eventually forced a fourth set — but the Frenchman kept his focus as broke the Canadian in the 10th game of the fourth set to seal the win. i didnt have to face a breakpoint for almost three hours.
Even if I lost the third set, in my mind it was clear I had to stay focused on my service game, taking care of that, then trying to put as many returns as I can, Pouille said post-match. In the third set I had some breakpoints.
He always saved it really well with a good serve, good points. Then he made a good breaker. Here we are. Its a fourth set. Im still leading two sets to one, so I dont have to panic. I really needed to stay positive, still doing what I did great for 2 hours 30 minutes.
After a disappointing 2018 campaign, Pouille appears to be headed in the right direction once again. The Frenchman admits he wasnt expecting to make such a deep run at Melbourne Park. Well, (a) low expectation, for sure.
I think if I asked someone, What did you think I would do in this US Open? Im not sure someone would have said semifinal or maybe more. There was some low expectation from outside of my team, even from myself. I was not expecting to do semis or quarters.
I just wanted to take step by step. The first goal of the tournament was to win the first match, and so on, Pouille admitted. Pouille also underlined that the new coach Amelie Mauresmo has played a big part in him finding his form and getting back his confidence.
Pouille admitted during some point of the that joy being on the court, lost the joy (of) going to (a) practice, practicing hard. I think shes bringing a lot of confidence to my game, to my personality, to my state of mind.
As I said at the beginning, the goal is not to reach the final, the semifinal, the goal is to improve my tennis, to put what I work on during the practice in the match. That gives me less pressure. Im just trying to focus on my game, not on the consequences and the results, Pouille claimed.
Pouille plays next against world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Also read: Stefanos Tsitsipas: It was tough to fall asleep after beating Roger Federer
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