By Chris Oddo | Friday July 15, 2016
Lucas Pouille gave Les Bleus life on Friday in Trinec with a dazzling Davis Cup debut.
Photo Source: AP
France’s Lucas Pouille continued his torrid tennis and kept Les Bleus very much alive in this weekend’s Davis Cup quarterfinal with the Czech Republic by notching a 7-6(2), 6-4, 7-5 victory over Jiri Vesely on Friday in Trinec.
More: Victoria Azarenka Expecting First Child, to Miss Rest of Season
The tie opened with a moment of silence to honor the 84 victims who lost their lives on Thursday in Nice. Though playing with heavy hearts, the French managed to rally and take something positive from a very difficult day.
“It’s so difficult to make sense out of all this,” said French Captain Yannick Noah. “We decided that we are going to give love and happiness to the people are following us.
“We always talk about trying to fight adversity but this morning was very difficult. It was very different. But this is what we have to do—it takes a different dimension all of a sudden, but this is what we do... We do our best to give joy to our people, and hopefully some people back home might forget for a few seconds the tragedy that happened to us.”
Earlier on Friday, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga failed to convert two match points against Lukas Rosol in a fourth-set tiebreaker before falling, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7(8), 6-4.
“Today was a tough day for us,” said Tsonga. “We came on the court trying to give our best for our country. It’s part of our job. It’s always difficult to go on the court in these conditions, but most important for us was to fight…”
Pouille picked up his teammates and his country by delivering a dazzling performance against the dangerous Vesely.
The 22-year-old Frenchman hit nine aces and struck 24 winners while breaking Vesely four times on 14 opportunities.
“I was scared, I was nervous before the match,” said Pouille. “I wanted to be better, and I wanted the win for the team. I think that’s why I was so good today.”
The French will now send the world’s top-ranked doubles tandem of Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert vs. Radek Stepanek and Adam Pavlasek.
Great Britain, Argentina Staked to Early Leads
In rain-affected ties, visiting teams from Great Britain and Argentina were able to take a lead against their hosts. But neither tie was able to complete both scheduled singles ties.
Kyle Edmund eased past Janko Tipsarevic in Belgrade to give Great Britain an early lead, while Federico Delbonis downed Andreas Seppi in four sets on Pesaro to give Argentina a 1-0 lead.
Both ties will play the No.2 singles rubber prior to the all-important doubles rubber on Saturday, weather permitting.