It appeared to be a dreary start as the Frenchman Lucas Pouille came into the Australian Open with a dodgy tennis resume of never winning a single match there in his five times to Melbourne. As he packed to go to the first grand slam of the year he might have wondered if this sixth trip would be different.
He hasnt gotten past the third round of any grand slam in the last 2018 season and was just hoping this would be the lucky one. He had a few injuries last season especially with his back in September, pulling out of two tournaments, one at Metz and the other in Tokyo.
This tournament looks hopeful for the Frenchman but Pouille has had difficult times not only last year, but in this slam having to struggle and go the distance in rounds from first until now. The spirit and desire helped him win his first round with Mikhail Kukushkin in three straight sets, an accomplishment for him having a lackluster previous season.
Pouille had gained a stance as he went on to the second round against Maximilian Marterer but three days had lapsed from his last round and not being agile was a factor. Hed won the first and second set as tiebreaks but the stress was a bit much.
The aggression and ability to dictate his shots in that third set was weakened and Marterer had gotten the best of him by being the dictator. The Germans ace had toppled the set giving him a win, but Pouille was able to regroup, hit a huge age with Marterer returning a shot way past the baseline for Pouille to win 7-6, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4.
The Frenchmans test was to keep his endurance up as his next opponent was the 19-year-old Australian Alexei Popyrin, teen who was labeled the newest sensation and had already defeated Dominic Thiem and showed great hops and accomplishments on the Challenger circuit.
Pouille had a few advantages coming into this round with the promising teen which was his 7 years of tennis experience and the winner of 5 singles titles plus winning Davis Cup against Belgium. Pouille handled Popyrin with precision strategies winning the opening set with a tiebreak despite Popyrin expertly opening up the court and getting winners off of Pouille from volleys and down the lines.
The second was a masterful display as the Frenchman blasted forehands and cross court winners for a 6-3 advantage. It was with Pouilles new coach Amelie Mauresmo who changed her plans of being a Davis Cup captain to focus on coaching Pouille that it all served in his favor against his opponents and the Australian teen.
After the match John McEnroe interviewed Pouille and mentioned Mauresmo saying ..and what do you believe that Miss Mauresmo brings to the table? Pouille smiled and said well she won here so who knows? The Frenchman was beaming with confidence and met up with Croatias Borna Coric in the fourth round with neither having won a match at the Australian Open before this year.
They were determined and feisty but the Frenchman led up a bit of engine powered game playing and lost the opening set tiebreak to Corics powerful game. Pouille dug in and kept the heat on Coric to win two straight sets with intense rallies and playing smart to level the third set at 5-all causing the Croatian to smash his racket at mid court.
Coric was willing to go the distance but unforced errors at unfortunate times caused him to lose the tough four setter 7-6, 4-6, 5-7,6-7. Pouille is heading to the quarterfinal to meet Canadas Milos Raonic who is playing superb tennis beating out Nick Kyrgios, Stan Wawrinka, Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Alexander Zverev.
The Frenchman will have his racket busy to conquer Raonics style and dynamics to zip into the quarterfinal of this ever challenging Australian Open.
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