Day 7 of the US Open Tennis Championships belonged to three Frenchmen, and the toast of NYC was definately the flamboyant 22 year old, Lucas Pouille, who earned the biggest victory of his career to date, when he defeated the 4th seed and two-time champion, Rafael Nadal in a tight five setter, 6-1 2-6 6-4 3-6 7-6(8) on the Arthur Ashe stadium.

Pouille had youth on his side as he faced the “giant” Nadal, who at 30 years old, and plenty of tennis mileage on his body, is not moving at his usual pace, despite always fighting until the end.

In a match that lasted just over four hours, Pouille fought back from a break down in the fifth set to force a tie-break and then managed to convert his fourth match point to claim victory.

Pouille has soared up the rankings in 2016 with amongst others, some fine performances during the Italian Open in Rome, followed by a quarter-final appearance at Wimbledon, where he lost to Tomas Berdych in straight sets.

Before the match, Nadal spoke highly of his opponent and one of the most formidable coaches of all time, Nick Bollettieri tweeted the following “@RafaelNadal vs @la_pouille one of most exciting matches I’ve seen in 60 years! Had to be 20k fans watching and cheering on big screens. Wow” and then “Congrats to @RafaelNadal and @la_pouille! Both players gave everything for @usopen fans!”

Earlier fellow Frenchmen, Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga also advanced to the quarter-finals. This is the first time in 89 years that there are three Frenchmen in the quarter-finals at the US Open and they are assured of a semi-finalist too as Pouille and Monfils will do battle, whilst Tsonga’s next opponent is Novak Djokovic, who defeated Kyle Edmund from Britain in straight sets, 6-2 6-1 6-4.