Rafael Nadal’s US Open upset raises questions: What’s next for the superstar?

Angelique Kerber won a battle of grand slam champions when the second seed powered her way into the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open on Sunday with a 6-3 7-5 win over Petra Kvitova. Pouille displayed enormous nerve in staging a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6) win against Nadal in a four-hour marathon that was decided in the tie-breaker of the fifth set.

However, Pouille said it was too early to say whether the breakthrough victory would change his career.

After missing much of this summer with a wrist injury, Nadal had made an impressive start to his Flushing Meadows campaign, progressing to the fourth round without dropping a set.

He has even failed to progress beyond the fourth round in his last five major appearances and his grand slam credentials are certainly up for debate.

At 4-3 up, however, Nadal left the door open for his opponent and after levelling the set, it was Pouille who ended on the front foot with Nadal content to take the match into a final-set tie-break. Double US Open victor Nadal drew within 4-3 but a forehand victor by Pouille made it 6-3 for triple match point. He will play France’s Gaël Monfils in the quarterfinals.

Rafael Nadal says he was happy with his effort and prospects going forward this season despite suffering a shock fourth-around loss at the US Open to Frenchman Lucas Pouille. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.theeagleonline.com.ng as the source. I’m going to keep working to try to find.

The four-hour, seven-minute contest entranced the crowd in Arthur Ashe stadium, where Pouille recalled admiring Nadal as a youngster.

On his part, Nadal said: “I fight until the end, until the last ball”.

It took four hours and a fifth-set tiebreak to upset the world No.5, which earns the 22-year-old a quarterfinal berth, alongside compatriots Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. I put [myself] in a position to have the victor, and I had the mistake.

“You can not go insane thinking about these kinds of things, no?”

Two days ago I had talked about the sharp contrasts in the sport of tennis, and how odd it is to see the players behave so differently on and off the court.

Meanwhile, Nadal told media wing that “it was a close match and I would like to wish my opponent a best of luck for the upcoming matches”. “So I’m really glad to be back”, Djokovic said in an on-court interview. But, you know, he’s like every players. Pouille pulled off a victor down the line the next point to seal victory.

When Nadal missed an easy short forehand that looked to be a sure putaway at 6-6 in the final-set tiebreaker (a shot he likely makes 19 out of 20 times), the narrative of the match – and indeed, of the very frustrating last two years for the brilliant Mallorcan – was summed up with one gesture, that of Nadal putting his hands on his head in an emotional display of disbelief.

Speaking after the match, Nadal admitted he was still not at his best but insisted he will continue to work hard to win more titles.

The Serb advanced to the quarters with a comprehensive 6-2 6-1 6-4 win over Britain’s Kyle Edmund.

Monfils advanced with a 6-3 6-2 6-3 victory victor against unseeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, and has yet to lose a set in the tournament.