Lucas Pouille of France made his first real mark on a grand slam event tonight, under the lights of Margaret Court Arena. His results in the last twelve months are enough to suggest we are going to see a lot more of him. He nearly upset countryman Gael Monfils before ultimately falling in five sets. The progress he’s made at the Australian Open shouldn’t be seen as his ‘coming out’ as this young man of just 20 years of age has been touted as one of the sports new talents of the game for quite some time. After years of hard work it now seems his dream have finally come into fruition as he attempts to storm the ATP tour.
Pouille has predominantly played his tennis on clay beating names such as Donald Young and Pere Riba in the process. He also lost just three games in a challenger match against Pablo Carreno Busta, who’s also a bright talent from the clay courts of Spain. The Frenchman’s real breakthrough came in the indoor courts of Bercy at the back end of last year when he became the talking point of the tournament. Pouille beat Ivo Karlovic, Fabio Fognini, Steve Johnson and Jarko Nieminen before bowing out in a 4-6 4-6 loss to none other than Roger Federer.
There are plenty of reasons why Pouille is seen as the next best thing in French tennis. His serve and forehand combination are shots to admire, and he can rely on both when the going gets tough. Many players have considerable weapons but don’t necessarily know how to harness those strengths in the big moments, however Pouille seems to know exactly what he’s doing when under scrutiny from his opponents.
Not only does Pouille have a very big forehand and reliable first serve, but he also has the ability to finish the point at the net. In the first set against Gael Monfils he wasn’t overawed and consistently made inroads, appearing at the net on the right balls at the right time. From 67 trips to the net he won the point 42 times, which isn’t bad for a 20-year-old playing just his second main draw match at the Australian Open and perhaps, the most important match of his life, when you take into account the adoration for Gael Monfils in France.
Pouille’s clarity of thought under pressure is what stands him in good stead for the future and separates him from the other talented youngsters. Lucas Pouille has what it takes to become a great player, but of course he still needs to produce these kind of performances on a regular basis on the ATP tour. His loss today after being two sets to love will hurt him dearly but if his strength of character is as good as it looks from the outside we should be seeing similar performances like this in the months ahead from Lucas Pouille.
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