Djokovic stuns Japan Open with machine-like tennis

World number one Novak Djokovic on Friday put on a stunning show of supremacy at the Japan Open with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Lucas Pouille of France.

The Serb more than overwhelmed his opponent in the quarterfinal match, showering Pouille with a barrage of powerful, precision shots to deep, wide corners mixed with delicate drop shots.

"I am not a machine. But I did play like one today," he said after their 50-minute contest.

"This was one of the best matches I played this year. Very, very pleased with the way I feel and played on the court," said Djokovic, who will face either David Goffin of Belgium or Chung Hyeon of South Korea in the semifinals.

"I am looking forward to another battle tomorrow, hopefully I will be able to keep up with this quality of tennis."

The latest victory provided further evidence of his swift recovery from a left shoulder injury that caused him to pull out of the US Open.

The Japan Open is the first competition for Djokovic since the incident.

He nailed eight aces and never committed double fault while collecting points on 82 percent of his successful first serves.

After cruising through the first set, Djokovic stepped up his tennis and began the second set by taking four games straight.

Pouille fought back to keep the fifth game and in the sixth game, he collected his only break of the match.

But Djokovic denied any other attempt by the French challenger, who was able to survive only one of seven break points.

It was the third meeting between the two men this year. Djokovic won all of them.

In the rest of the Tokyo tournament, John Millman of Australia defeated Japanese wild card Taro Daniel 6-4, 6-0.

American player Reilly Opelka beat Japanese qualifier Yasutaka Uchiyama 6-3, 6-3.

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Tennis: Federer bags more records as he downs Pouille to reach last 16

LONDON - Roger Federer kept tennis statisticians on their toes on Saturday as he mopped up a few more records by trampling all over Lucas Pouille's dreams in a rip-roaring 7-5 6-2 7-6(4) win to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon.

The Swiss became the first player - man or woman - to win 350 singles matches at the majors.

But as the father of two sets of twins, Federer seems to have a penchant for doing things in pairs and Saturday was no different as he also set a professional era record of reaching the last 16 for the 17th time - surpassing the previous benchmark he had shared with Jimmy Connors.

The Swiss is unlikely to be popping champagne corks to celebrate either milestone, however, as he has his eyes firmly set on much, much bigger prizes - a record ninth Challenge Cup and a 21st Grand Slam title.

To get closer to that, however, he will first have to negotiate his way past Italian 17th seed Matteo Berrettini.

While the hollering fans gave Federer a standing ovation as he completed his 350th match win at the majors just a month shy of his 38th birthday, the world's favourite tennis son was more circumspect about the record.

"I know back in the amateur times, they were not playing all the slams because it was too far to travel to some places," said the Swiss after saluting the crowd which included Grand Slam champions of the caliber of Rod Laver, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova.

"It's a nice number to achieve and I have enjoyed my time at the slams. They've given me some of the most memorable and special moments on a tennis court, so of course it's nice winning that much.

"I don't know how many years I have got left but at the moment I am really enjoying myself. I love to move on the grass, it comes very naturally to me so for me to win today was great ... it's been wonderful."

ENTERTAINING MATCH

Australian Open semi-finalist Pouille was cheered on by his coach Amelie Mauresmo as he played his part in an entertaining match that was more keenly contested than the score suggests but he bowed out after netting a backhand on Federer's third match point.

Pouille had a break point at 3-3 in the first set and again at 5-5. A Federer in full flight had to hit three slam dunk smashes in a row to stay alive in the 11th game - an effort that lifted the roaring crowd to their feet.

Once he survived that mini wobble, he rolled through six successive games before Pouille unexpectedly ended the run by breaking the Federer serve. While it was not enough to rescue the second set, it gave the Frenchman the belief to fight on.

But sometimes belief is just not enough - especially when the man opposite you is closing in on a century of match wins at the All England Club - with Saturday being his 98th triumph.

"It was tough. It was a hardfought match especially in that first set. He had break point at 5-all. It was a tough hold there and go on a little run there, that was nice," summed up Federer.

"That was maybe the key to the match. In the third it was tough, it was very even so there is always a relief winning a third set breaker because if it goes the other way, we might be here for another few hours." 

(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar, editing by Ed Osmond)

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Pouille wraps up 10th Davis Cup title for France

LILLE, France - France won their 10th Davis Cup title when Lucas Pouille crushed Steve Darcis 6-3 6-1 6-0 to give the hosts a 3-2 victory in the final against neighbors Belgium on Sunday.

Pouille was never threatened in the decisive rubber after David Goffin had given Belgium both their points with impressive displays in the singles.

Les Bleus, however, had more strength in depth, winning a singles match through Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday and Saturday's doubles with Richard Gasquet and Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

It was their first title since they beat Australia away in 2001 before three defeats in the final - in 2002, 2010 and 2014 - while Belgium have yet to win the title, having now lost three finals after defeats in 1904 and 2015.

Yannick Noah, the last Frenchman to win a grand slam title, celebrated his third Davis Cup success as captain after leading France to victory in 1991 and 1996.

"It was a victory we had been dreaming off," said Noah. "It's a united group. It was a tough weekend against a good Belgian team. Lucas played a fantastic final match."

Belgium captain Johan Van Herck added: "I would not change anything. We have regrets about losing, it's normal that we are disappointed after a tough weekend. In sports it's never nice to be second".

STRAIGHT SETS

Goffin gave the visitors a 1-0 lead by beating Pouille in the opening singles before Tsonga levelled by defeating Darcis on Friday, the number ones both prevailing in straight sets.

France took the lead thanks to the pairing of Gasquet and Herbert, who had never played a competitive match together but beat Ruben Bemelmans and Joris De Loore in four sets.

Goffin was again a notch above the rest on Sunday, levelling the tie at 2-2 against Tsonga with a 7-6(5) 6-3 6-2 win as the world number seven sent the tie into a decider.

The final match was anti-climactic as Pouille went for the throat, racing to a 3-0 lead against Darcis, who never seemed to stand a chance on the indoor hardcourt even if he had won all of his five matches in the competition before.

World number 18 Pouille, who was born 75 km from Lille, held serve to take the first set and never looked back, claiming 12 games in a row and closing it out on the first match point when a sorry Darcis sent a shot long.

"There's nothing more beautiful than winning as a team in front of my friends and family. Now we're going to celebrate and enjoy it," said Pouille.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Clare Fallon and Ken Ferris)

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Nadal survives Pouille fright to progress at China Open

Rafa Nadal came within a whisker of making an opening-round exit at the China Open on Tuesday as he was pushed to three sets by Frenchman Lucas Pouille before winning 4-6 7-6(6) 7-5.

The world number one, who was beaten by Pouille the last time they met at the 2016 U.S. Open, lost a close first set before saving two match points in a second-set tiebreak which he won to level things up.

Nadal needed all his experience to keep Pouille at bay in the decider and the match looked to be heading for another tiebreak before he pounced to break Pouille's serve for the first time to go 6-5 up.

The Spaniard held his nerve to close out the match in clinical fashion after two hours and 31 minutes and will next face Russian Karen Khachanov, who beat Chinese wild card Wu Di 6-4 6-2.

"(Pouille) played well. Very aggressive, He's serving well," Nadal said. "For me it was little bit difficult at the beginning. Then I started to play better. But still I didn't have the control of the match for almost all the time.

"I remember the match against him in the U.S. Open... That time was for him, today was for me."

Second seed Alexander Zverev served seven aces as he beat Britain's Kyle Edmund 6-3 7-6(3) in the day's last match and will meet Italy's Fabio Fognini in the next round.

Juan Martin del Potro stormed into round two with a 7-6(4) 6-4 win over Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas and will face third seed Grigor Dimitrov, who battled past Bosnian Damir Dzumhur 6-1 3-6 6-3.

Eighth seed Nick Kyrgios breezed past Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-1 6-2, the Australian serving 12 aces as he closed out the contest in under an hour.

John Isner, the number six seed, also pulled off a routine 6-2 6-3 victory over Tunisian qualifier Malek Jaziri, although two of the American's unseeded compatriots bowed out.

Jared Donaldson fought hard against Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych, but ran out of steam as he went down 6-3 0-6 6-2.

Jack Sock was also eliminated and the 25-year-old will be disappointed he could not hold off Andrey Rublev despite comfortably winning the first set against the Russian, who bounced back to win 3-6 6-1 6-2 and will face Berdych next.

(Writing by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond and Ken Ferris)

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Pouille stuns Nadal to lead French charge into US Open quarter-finals

NEW YORK -- Lucas Pouille outlasted 14-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal in a five-set classic on Sunday to lead a trio of French men into the quarter-finals of the US Open.

Pouille, 22 and ranked 25th in the world, lived up to the promise of his quarter-final run at Wimbledon, emerging from a roller-coaster ride with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (8/6) triumph over the Spanish superstar.

The defeat leaves Nadal -- forced out of the French Open third round with a wrist injury that also saw him miss Wimbledon -- without at least one Grand Slam quarter-final appearance for the first time since he was a teenaged tour newcomer in 2004.

Pouille came out firing, pushing Nadal back with an array of deep groundstrokes and angled shots.

Fifty-two winners from Nadal -- whose attacking response saw him come out a winner on 35 of 48 forays to the net -- weren't enough.


The taut battle came down to the fifth-set tiebreaker and Nadal, trailing 3-6, showed his mettle by saving three match points -- the third on Pouille's serve.

Then he smacked a forehand into the net to give Pouille one more chance and the French player pounced on it with a blazing forehand that kissed the sideline.

"It was a very close match, anything could have happened," said Nadal, who opened the fifth set with a break but couldn't hold onto it, dropping his own serve in the eighth to make it 4-4 and set the stage for the tiebreaker.

"I fought until the end," Nadal said. "There's things I could do better, but I had the right attitude. I needed something more -- it was not there today."

The four-hour, seven-minute contest entranced the crowd in Arthur Ashe stadium, where Pouille recalled admiring Nadal as a youngster.

“When I was younger I used to watch all his matches on (Ashe) and now it's me," said Pouille, who has won three successive five-setters to reach the last eight.

He next tackles 10th-seeded compatriot Gael Monfils, a 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 winner over Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.

Ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also advanced, downing Jack Sock, the last American man left in the draw, 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (7/9), 6-2.

It's the first time since 1947 that three French men have reached the quarter-finals of one Grand Slam.

The 23-year-old Sock, seeded 26th, hadn't faced a break point in surprising 2014 champion Marin Cilic in the third round.

Against Tsonga he mustered only five aces and was broken six times by the 2008 Australian Open runner-up, who has reached at least the semi-finals of every Grand Slam except this one.

Tsonga next faces either world number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic or Kyle Edmund, a 21-year-old Briton who is in the last 16 of a Grand Slam for the first time in his first appearance in the US Open draw.

Djokovic, 9-0 in US Open fourth-round appearances, struggled through a first-round victory over Jerzy Janowicz but hasn't broken a sweat since.

He was given a walkover in the second round by injured Czech Jiri Vesely and played just six games before third round opponent Mikhail Youzhny retired hurt.

The extra rest may prove providential for Djokovic, who has battled a left wrist injury and received treatment on his right arm during his win over Janowicz.

The remaining round of 16 matches were scheduled for Monday, when world number two Andy Murray will take on Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

Third-seeded Stan Wawrinka, sixth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan, eighth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem and former champion Juan Martin del Potro will also battle for quarter-final berths.

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