Talented Frenchman Lucas Pouille battles past No 16 seed Milos Raonic to book place in his first Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open
- Lucas Pouille overcame a higher seed to book his place in Melbourne’s last four
- The 28th-seeded Frenchman won first two sets 7-6, 6-3 against Milos Raonic
- Canadian 16th seed battled back to win third set tie-break but lost the fourth
- Pouille will go on to face Novak Djokovic in his first Australian Open semi-final
Lucas Pouille took a leaf from the Andy Murray playbook when he hired Amelie Mauresmo to be his coach, and it has quickly paid the dividend of him reaching a first Grand Slam semi-final.
The 24 year-old Frenchman will take on Novak Djokovic in the last four of the Australian Open, having already ensured that it has been a good fortnight for female coaches.
On the same day that another former Wimbledon women’s champion, Conchita Martinez, was in the support box of Serena Williams’s conqueror Karolina Pliskova, Pouille achieved a career breakthrough defusing the power of Milos Raonic.
Lucas Pouille reacts after winning his Australian Open quarter-final tie against Milos Raonic
Pouille lost one set but was in control overall and deserved his win against big-serving Raonic
French 28 seed Pouille has now booked his place in his first ever Grand Slam semi-final match
Frenchman Pouille will come up against Novak Djokovic in the last four at Australian Open
He overcame the No 16 seed 6-7 6-3 7-6 6-4 and then paid tribute to the expertise that Mauresmo, who coached Murray for nearly two years between 2014 and 2016.
‘She has the right state of mind and she knows a lot about tennis,’ said the world No 31. ‘It’s not about being a woman or a man you just have to know what you are doing, and she does.’
His improvement has been stark after a mediocre 2018 and a dreadful start to this season which saw him lose every match at the Hopman Cup team event and go out of the first round of the Sydney International. He had never won a round at the Australian Open in five previous attempts.
Now he meets the six-times Australian champion Djokovic, who was ushered through when Kei Nishikori retired 6-1 4-1 down. The Japanese player had thigh problems after playing three five set matches in prior rounds.
Raonic was ranked 12 places higher than his opponent but lost the match in four sets
Pouille takes the applause of the crowd after securing the win with his third match point
Pouille’s girlfriend Clemence Bertrand (left) and coach Amelie Mauresmo (right) watch on
Raonic had looked back to his best in Melbourne, but had to wave goodbye on Wednesday
This event usually throws up at least one surprise semi finalist, such as Kyle Edmund and Hyeon Chung last year, and this time they are Pouille and Stefanos Tsitsipas, who on Thursday faces Rafael Nadal in the first semi-final.
A somewhat stormy Australian Open ended for Jamie Murray when he and Bruno Soares were knocked out of the men’s doubles quarter-finals by old adversaries Henri Kontinen and John Peers 6-3 6-4. He also lost in the same stage of the mixed doubles, going down to Astra Sharma and John-Patrick Smith.
The last British survivor in the main events of what has been an incident-filled Grand Slam for GB tennis was Liverpool’s Neal Skupski. He reached the semi-finals of the mixed doubles with Spanish partner Maria-Jose Martinez Sanchez when they beat the top seeds Mate Pavic and Gabriela Dabrowski 6-1 4-6 11-9.
Young Frenchman Pouille stretches to reach a return during his victory over Raonic
Pouille’s girlfriend appeared very emotional after watching him clinch a first-ever semi spot
Pouille had lost five first-round matches in five years before the 2019 tournament in Melbourne