Resurgent Frenchman Lucas Pouille has earned his first grand slam semi-final appearance, downing Milos Raonic in their Australian Open quarter final.
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The 28th seed will play world No.1 Novak Djokovic on Friday night for a place in the final after defeating the booming Canadian 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 on Rod Laver Arena.
And not even Pouille saw it coming.
"There was some low expectation from outside of my team, even from myself. I was not expecting to do semis or quarters," he said.
The 24-year-old, who knocked young Australian Alexei Popyrin out in the third round, hadn't won a match prior to 2019 at Melbourne Park in five appearances.
He lost each match at the Hopman Cup.
He was dumped out of the Sydney International in the first round by world No.84 Andrey Rubrev.
And in three meetings with Raonic - who had sent world No.4 Alex Zverev, former winner Stan Wawrinka and Aussie ace Nick Kyrgios packing from Melbourne Park this fortnight - Pouille hadn't so much as won a set.
"There is a lot of first times this week," Pouille said after triumphing.
"I'm very happy, just very happy.
"I knew it would be a really tough match. I think I did really great on the return.
"We kept working hard even after all the matches I lost.
"I decided to take it step by step, give all I could every single point and here I am."
Pouille was almost faultless in the opening two sets, making 30 winners for just nine unforced errors.
While his level dropped in the third-set tiebreak, Pouille snapped back into his rhythm in the fourth set.
The key to his resistance was lethal returning, particularly on his backhand.
Time and again, the Frenchman speared balls towards Raonic's feet with incredible consistency, making it impossible for the Canadian to serve-volley effectively.
Raonic had a chance to hold serve and go to 5-5 in the fourth set when he let a Pouille effort fly past him at the net only for it to drop a full metre inside the court.
Six points later, Pouille triumphed over the world No.17 for the best result of his career.
After overturning a losing streak dating back to October last year, Pouille said his defeat of rising star Popyrin was a turning point.
"The five-set match against Popyrin gave me a lot of confidence," he said.
"I needed this kind of tough battle to bring my confidence back."
Australian Associated Press
