Pouille edges Nadal in 5-set thriller at US Open

Frenchman Lucas Pouille rallied from a break down in the fifth set to upset Spanish twotime champion Rafael Nadal 61, 26, 64, 36, 76 (86) Sunday in the fourth round of the US Open, a match that clocked in at more than four hours.

The talented 22yearold stunned the fourthseeded Nadal and the New York crowd by handily besting Nadal from the baseline in the opening set, which he won in less than a halfhour.

But the 14time Grand Slam champion returned the favor in the second set, picking up his aggressiveness to strike 14 winners and break the Frenchman’s serve on two occasions.

The 24thseeded Pouille reclaimed the initiative and also benefited from 12 unforced errors by the Spaniard in taking the third set, but Nadal turned the match around once again to claim the fourth set and grab a servicebreak lead in the decider.

The young Frenchman, however, refused to go away, breaking back and sending the match to a fifthset tiebreaker.

More seesaw action was in store, with Pouille going up 63 in the tiebreaker but then squandering all three of those match points, the last of them on a forehand that sailed well over the baseline.

But nerves also got to Nadal, who netted a routine forehand to give Pouille one final match point, which he clinched with a forehand blast downtheline from behind the baseline.

Pouille is set to face off in the quarterfinals against his countryman Gael Monfils, the No. 10 seed, who handily dismissed Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 63, 62, 63 earlier Sunday.

In other matches, French No. 9 seed JoWilfried Tsonga topped 26thseeded American Jack Sock 63, 63, 67 (79), 62. He will next take on World No. 1 and the tournament’s top seed, Serb Novak Djokovic, who Sunday night easily won against British upandcomer Kyle Edmund 62, 61, 64.

Additionally, in women’s results, Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova upset British No. 13 seed Johanna Konta 64 and 75, while unseeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki defeated eighthseeded American Madison Keys 63, 64.

Italian No. 7 seed Roberta Vinci, last year’s US Open runnerup, topped Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko 76 (75), 62.

World No. 2 seed Angelique Kerber, from Germany, won 63, 75 against Czech No. 14 seed Petra Kvitova on Sunday night.