New York - Pouille stuns Nadal to reach US Open quarterfinals
By Agencies
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Published: Mon 5 Sep 2016, 1:25 PM
Last updated: Tue 6 Sep 2016, 10:25 PM
Rafa Nadal said he was sad to have squandered an opportunity to do something special at the U.S. Open with his fourth-round loss at Flushing Meadows, but happy with his effort and prospects going forward this season. "I fight until the end," Nadal said about his 6-1 2-6 6-4 3-6 7-6(6) loss to 22-year-old Frenchman Lucas Pouille on Sunday. "There were things I could do better. I had the right attitude. I fought right up to the last ball. "But I need something else, I need something more that was not there today. I going to keep working to try to find." Nadal came back from more than two months of inaction due to a wrist injury that forced him out of the French Open and Wimbledon to compete last month at the Rio Olympics and won gold in doubles with Marc Lopez, and reached the singles semi-finals. While he reports continued improvement in his left wrist, the 30-year-old Spaniard knows he still has a ways to go. "Is true that I don't have lot of matches on my shoulders for the last three, four months, but even like this I lost an opportunity," Nadal said. "I lost an opportunity to have a very good event here. I am sad for that. "I need to keep improving the level of tennis to be back where I was before the injury."
Wow!! This match is unbelievable!! 6 all in the 5th and 6 all in the tiebreaker! #pouille#nadal amazing level of play - Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) September 4, 2016
Nadal said that although the grand slam season is over, he still has goals. "I have the motivation to keep working," he said. "I needed to serve better in some moments. I needed to create more pain on the opponent with my shots. That was something that I didn't make today. "I have a few months to finish the season, to try to be qualified for the World Tour Finals. That will be a good effort, if I make that happen after two months and a half without competition. I going to fight for it. "My wrist is improving a lot. I say that looks like the injury is at the end of the process. I am ready to keep playing. That's what my body is asking me now." For Lucas Pouille, two trips to Grand Slam quarterfinals - including Sunday's US Open upset of 14-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal - has taken any lingering sting out of his failure to make France's Olympic team. "I'm looking forward," the 22-year-old said, and well he might after prevailing in a scintillating fifth-set tiebreaker over Nadal, a player he's admired since his youth. He's in the quarterfinals of a second straight Grand Slam, having also reached the last eight at Wimbledon - after missing the cut for the Rio Games team. "I knew if I wanted to win that, it's not going to be like three sets, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. It would be long. So I was ready for it," said the Frenchman. Like Federer, Pouille has set up a training base in Dubai. He has also begun working with his own physical trainer who travels with him to tournaments. The physical improvements he's felt have boosted his confidence. "The way I'm going on court is not the same as last year," he said. "I think that's why I'm better than the year before." He's satisfied with the progress, and with his attention focused on quarter-final foe Gael Monfils, happy to wait and see if his latest big win will prove to be a career-changer. "It could maybe," he said. "I will tell you in a few months or a few years."
The brothers, who say they are innocent, are accused of having formed an organised criminal network in early 2021 in Romania, as well as in the US and Britain
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