Lucas Pouille full of praise for Novak Djokovic after Australian Open clash
Even French tennis star Lucas Pouille was full of praise for world No. 1 Novak Djokovic's semi-final performance.
Top-seeded Djokovic demolished No. 28 seed Pouille 6-0 6-2 6-2 to reach his seventh final at Melbourne Park.
The dominant Serb won 84 percent of his first serve points, hit 24 winners, converted 7-of-12 of his break point chances and faced no break point opportunities in an hour and 23 minutes of action.
*Well, as you can imagine, not easy. I was trying to find a solution, but couldn't find any. From the beginning, yeah, I think the first mistake came after maybe one set, I don't know," Pouille said post-match, when asked how tough Djokovic was to deal with.
"Yeah, if I wanted to get closer or arrive at the end of one set 4-All, I had to serve 90% or 100% first serve. Even this I was not sure to even get close to it.
"Yeah, I think he just played amazing. He was too good today."
Pouille believes that Djokovic is deservedly the No. 1 player in the world.
Djokovic will be fighting against world No. 2 Rafael Nadal for the 2019 Australian Open title.
"Well, I think when he's playing like this, yeah, he's the best in the world for sure. We'll see on Sunday how he goes, because Rafa looks pretty amazing, too. I think they going to make a great match again," Pouille said of Djokovic.
"But I think when he doesn't make any mistake, he's moving so well, he's coming back from defense to offense, yeah, I think he's playing perfectly good. I'm not sure, but I think there is a lot of chance that he's the best player in the world when he's playing like this."
Pouille's run to the semi-final came out of nowhere as the Frenchman had a disappointing 2018 season and started this season with an opening round loss suffered at the Sydney International.
"Well, about the tournament, yeah, I'm very happy the way I played and with the way I get into this tournament, this beginning of the year. I think it was the best start possible. It gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of the year and for the next couple of tournaments coming very soon with Montpellier in 10 days," Pouille said.
"Yeah, I'm just very happy. It gives me, as I said, a lot of confidence on my work and my team, and the way we are working."
Pouille edged out Nadal in a thriller clash at the US Open three years ago 6-1 2-6 6-4 3-6 7-6 (6) to reach the quarter-final.
When asked to compare the difference between playing Djokovic and Nadal at a Grand Slam, Pouille said: "Well, beating them in two sets is not impossible, but is really, really tough. Beating them best-of-five in a Grand Slam is even more difficult.
"Yeah, I beat Rafa in 2016. I made an unbelievable match. But he also has a game that fits my game pretty well. I like to play against him. His forehand comes high on my backhand and I like it. Every time we play each other during the practice, it's always some great tennis.
"Novak is playing like really, really fast, really low. He's close to the baseline. Always he has good placement in any situation. Even in defense, he's going to put the ball really deep maybe 10, 20 centimeters from the baseline. You will always have a tough shot to make. That's kind of difficult.
"You can do it once, two, three times. But doing three hours, four hours, I imagine could be difficult because we didn't even play for two hours."
Also read: Stefanos Tsitsipas: Rafael Nadal has talent that no other player has
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2HwINgB
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