This was the U.S. Open bidding adieu to the first week in the finest way possible, giving those who decided to spend their Labor Day Sunday in Queens watching tennis with a splendid gift — the tournament’s first epic match and first major upset.
It took 4 hours and 7 minutes, the longest match of the tournament thus far, and eventually No. 4 Rafael Nadal lost to unheralded Frenchman Lucas Pouille in a contest at Arthur Ashe Stadium that needed more than five sets, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (8-6).
“I need something else, I need something more that was not there,” Nadal said. “I’m going to keep working to try to find [it].”
The tension reached its climax in the fifth-set tiebreaker, with the sun having already set behind the Manhattan skyline and the two competitors pushing the definition of a day session. The 22-year-old Pouille came in as the No. 24 seed, and he went up 6-3 in the tiebreaker, giving him three consecutive match points.
Nadal thwarted all three.
“At 6-3, I was like, ‘OK, you’re going to win this one,’ ” Pouille said. “Then 6-all, it was not the same.”
But when Nadal continued his sloppy evening by plowing a forehand into the net for his 41st unforced error of the match, Pouille got one more chance against one of the game’s all-time best. This one he didn’t blow, blasting his 59th winner just as he had so many others — right on the line.
“I couldn’t believe he would miss it,” Pouille said, having fallen to his back after he struck his winner. “But, you know, he’s like every player. He feels the pressure as well. Even if he’s one of the best, he feel the pressure.”
The loss of Nadal now changes the entire tenor of the men’s singles draw. Nadal has two U.S. Open victories, while this is the second time Pouille has played the tournament. Nadal has 14 Grand Slam victories, while Pouille had his best showing in a major in July when he made the quarters at Wimbledon.
“I am not a person that when I am winning, I’m like this, when I am losing, I am like this,” Nadal said, indicating up and down. “My life is stable. Just accept that these kind of things happen and keep working, no?”
Nadal has been dealing with a left-wrist injury that kept him out of the French Open this year, but he was hardly blaming that for the performance. Instead, he lauded his competitor for playing well in the big moment.
“If he wants to become a champion he cannot be tight in that moment,” Nadal said of the tiebreaker. “Especially when you are 22, when you are playing against a player that in theory you have nothing to lose, you have everything to win. It’s not a moment to be tight. It’s a moment to play aggressive. I think he did, and he did very well.”
The win made Pouille the third Frenchmen in the quarterfinals. He will face one of them, Gael Monfils, in the quarters Tuesday, while countryman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also advanced.
“For me, because I worked very hard, I’m feeling very confident, that’s why I’m here,” Pouille said. “For Jo and Gael it’s the same. They’re unbelievable players. They are at this level for many years now.”
The match started with Nadal looking out of sorts, losing the first set, 6-1. But after trading the next three sets, the match went to the fifth and it sure seemed like Nadal was going to pull it out — until he didn’t. It shocked all those watching, but it gave Pouille his first big moment and started to define this U.S. Open in dramatic light.
“Sometimes I couldn’t even hear myself when I was saying, ‘Allez, allez, allez,’” Pouille said, using the French word for ‘go’. “Sometimes you can’t even hear yourself.”
Asked on the court after it was over what it all meant, in the din of the stadium, Pouille had to take a deep breath.
“Everything,” he said.