[The Bulldog]

Felt obliged to make this thread after he's just recorded his tenth win in a row on the future's circuit.

I'm looking forward to seeing him develop into a good player, hopefully.

[duong]

I saw a few images of him some years ago : seemed to be a tall powerful guy coming from Northern France.

Seems to travel on American continent with Mathias Bourgue at the moment, and has defeated him twice in those tournaments actually

Was less hyped than Bourgue and Lokoli few years ago.

[soulage]

Interview by the FFT http://www.fft.fr/actualites/fil-d-i...aison-comme-ca

Vainqueur de ses deux premiers titres pros ces deux dernières semaines, Lucas Pouille revient sur cette quinzaine faste.

En août dernier, Lucas Pouille avait remporté le championnat de France 17-18 ans. Son premier titre individuel depuis quatre ans et son succès au championnat de France 13-14 ans. Passé à la rentrée du pôle France de l'Insep au Centre national d'entraînement sous la direction d'Emmanuel Planque, Pouille n'avait plus qu'un but : transposer sa réussite chez les pros. Après deux finales en Future sur terre battue à Bastad (Suède) en mai et Sokobanja (Serbie) en septembre, le Nordiste a franchi le cap en novembre en remportant coup sur coup deux tournois Future sur dur à Merida (Mexique).

Quel bilan tirez-vous de cette tournée ?
Plutôt positif. Nous sommes partis quatre semaines. La première, nous étions à Birmingham aux Etats-Unis. J'ai atteint les quarts où j'ai perdu 7/5 au 3e contre le futur finaliste (ndlr : l'Américain Chase Buchanan). Puis nous avons rejoint le Mexique pour trois semaines. J'ai perdu au 2e tour du premier tournoi à Cancun. Puis j'ai réussi à gagner les deux suivants à Merida en faisant deux bons tournois puisque je n'ai pas perdu un set !
Comment expliquez-vous que vous ayez passé le cap de la victoire en Future ?
Lors de la finale en Serbie, je n'étais pas passé loin puisque j'avais perdu 6/4 au 3e set (ndlr : 6/3, 5/7, 6/4 contre le Slovaque Josef Kovalik). Au Mexique, je suis rentré sur le court avec l'envie de gagner. La première finale était un match particulier puisque j'ai affronté Mathias Bourgue (ndlr : son partenaire d'entraînement). Mais j'ai été solide (ndlr : victoire 6/4, 6/1). Lors du deuxième tournoi, j'étais en pleine confiance et bien physiquement. Conséquence : j'ai encore bien joué. C'était vraiment dans la continuité.
Quel effet ça fait de remporter au total 26 sets consécutifs ?
Ça amène beaucoup de confiance. J'étais vraiment content d'enchaîner ainsi, depuis les qualifications jusqu'à ma deuxième victoire à Merida. C'est bon de finir la saison comme ça ! Maintenant place à deux semaines de vacances et je vais revenir très motivé pour la reprise de l'entraînement le 3 décembre.
Comment s'est passée la transition entre le pôle France de l'Insep et le Centre national d'entraînement ?
Bien. Je suis tombé dans le même groupe que Mathias Bourgue, mon meilleur ami. Nous sommes entraînés par Emmanuel Planque. Et ça se passe super bien. Il y a une bonne dynamique, aucune difficulté. On a beaucoup échangés. Même si ça ne fait que trois mois qu'on travaille ainsi, j'ai déjà l'impression d'avoir progressé un peu dans tous les domaines.

[carlota07]

Here is another article about Lucas Pouille http://tennistrotteur.com/2012/11/19...-qui-confirme/

[duong]

another article in French : he will get a wild-card for the AO qualies :

http://www.lequipe.fr/Tennis/Actuali...-effort/337620

[Sombrerero loco]

and also a MD WC for noumea challenger this week

[The Bulldog]

What a stunning victory over Groth. 6-2 6-2, and this is after losing to him last week.

Next up he faces Ruben Bemelmans. A nightmare for me personally, as I love Ruben a lot.

Great signs for Lucas, though.

[Sham Kay]

Bemelmans won 64 61.

Lucas looks to be an exciting prospect. His record on the futures circuit last season was brilliant. Should play a few more challengers this season.

[Sombrerero loco]

have you guys watched him playing live yet? just asking

[The Bulldog]

I watched him against Groth. He moved pretty well, had decent topspin on both his forehand and backhand. I haven't yet seen a big weapon in his game. Let's give him some time to develop some power on his shots and serve.

Groth was really the architect of his own downfall. Lucas didn't have to do much.

[Sham Kay]

Originally Posted by Sombrerero loco

have you guys watched him playing live yet? just asking

Yeah, against Groth. Won't call him a power hitter or someone with *that* massive weapon, though he's young so he could develop it. Do like his consistency on his forehand, and it breaks down less than his backhand. Both wings look solid. Seems to already have a great awareness of what's going on on the court, and fighting for points comes naturally for him, which is promising for French fans.

[Sombrerero loco]

i saw him live on a future in my city, in 2011. i saw him in 2 matches, and i was not impressed at all, even though he beat yevseyev in one of those 2... i think he has improved a lot though =P

[Renaud]

El Capullo lost against Troicki, 46 57, not a bad score. Did anybody watch the match ? No thread on GM and nothing on the live commentary thread...

[The Bulldog]

Originally Posted by Renaud

El Capullo lost against Troicki, 46 57, not a bad score. Did anybody watch the match ? No thread on GM and nothing on the live commentary thread...

I watched it.

Here are a few things I observed, further to what I wrote following his AO match.

- I didn't realise quite how good his forehand was before. He has every trust in it, and commits to every stroke, and it's pretty secure, save for the odd back-fence ball.

- He doesn't trust his backhand at all, despite it being fairly safe and secure and pretty potent. At every opportunity he runs around the backhand to hit a forehand. Hopefully he'll grow out of it, because if you look at the top guys these days, some of them run around their backhands quite often, but not to this extent.

- I liked his overall aggressive intent. There was a lot of serve-and-volley points that he executed fairly well, he volleyed okay in general. Generally there's a desire to move forward, which is good.

- The most impressive thing was his serve. Very accurate and every time he got the first serve in, I thought he put Troicki in a lot of trouble.

Overall, the match was close. Lucas was going to get broken at some point, Troicki was just too solid, and to be fair to the Serbian, he completely shut Pouille out in his own service games. Return needs to be worked on.

I look forward to watching him on other surfaces and to see whether he's good on clay, or not.

[soulage]

Maybe people trust in his talent and he's helped by FFT with WC in Australia and here.

An interview after his match yesterday http://www.fft.fr/actualites/fil-d-i...j-ai-le-niveau