Pouille Fights Back To Beat Simon In Brisbane
Pouille Fights Back To Beat Simon In Brisbane
Spanish superstar Rafael Nadal competes during the night session
Sixth seed Lucas Pouille recovered from a disastrous start to get the better of his French compatriot Gilles Simon for the first time on Tuesday at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp. Roger Federer’s training partner during the off-season, who is currently No. 15 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, edged past Simon 7-6(6), 7-6(4) in two hours and six minutes.
Pouille was down 0-5 in first set against Simon and worried that he might be headed for a repeat of the 6-0, 6-1 loss to Simon in Miami last year. But he rallied en route to claiming his first win in three career meetings. Pouille saved two sets points in the first set at 2-5, 30/40 and at 5/6 in the tie-break, and another two set points at 4-5 in the second set.
“I used what happened in Miami as inspiration to fight back,” said Pouille. “I tried to stay focused, to be solid, more consistent, a little more aggressive and things turned out better.”
In other first-round matches, wild card Sam Groth delighted the local crowd with a 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 win over Pierre-Hugues Herbert. The Aussie held serve to stay in the match at 4-5 in the deciding set. Groth improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Herbert to 2-0, with the other win also coming in Brisbane in 2014.
“It’s been a while since I had a tour-level win. After last year it was nice to start the year with a win, that’s for sure,” said Groth, who struggled with injuries throughout 2016. “Foot feels good, body feels good, had a full off-season. I felt like I was moving better today than I probably moved for the whole of last year.”
Next up for the big server is fourth seed Dominic Thiem. The Austrian, currently No. 8 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 2-0, with both straight-set performances coming this past season in Miami and Stuttgart.
Qualifier and #NextGen star Jared Donaldson recorded an impressive 6-4, 6-4 win over veteran Gilles Muller. The 20-year-old American won 82 per cent of his first serve points and wrapped up victory in just 75 minutes. His reward is a tough second-round battle against third seed Kei Nishikori.
Viktor Troicki advanced on Tuesday with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over qualifier and #NextGen star Yoshihito Nishioka. Next up for the Serbian is second seed Stan Wawrinka. The Swiss star leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 6-0, including two victories this past season at Roland Garros and St. Petersburg.