Who Is Lucas Pouille?
TENNISINSIDEOUT.COM PLAYER PROFILE
Name: Lucas Pouille
Val has named him: “Pookie”
For those wondering, pūkelis is Lithuanian for fuzz..we used to say “pookie”. 🙂 And Pooky is Garfield’s fuzzy bear pic.twitter.com/YTbu9Skvpg— Tennis Inside Out (@TennisInsideOut) October 29, 2014
Birthday: February 23, 1994
Country: France
Twitter: @la_pouille
Instagram: lucaspouille
In a nutshell: We first noticed Lucas Pouille way back when he skillfully took out America’s competitive wildcard winner Alex Kuznetsov in the first round of the 2013 French Open, 6-1, 7-6(2), 6-2. Pouille went down in straights the next round to then-ranked #28 Grigor Dimitrov, but pushed one set to a TB.
The soft-spoken French player has substantially improved his game since then, and we can’t help feeling excited about a Frenchie that has a combination of strengths rarer than a unicorn in his country: flair, power, AND a steady on-court temperament. When watching young players, we’ll often say things like “He has potential.” The fun of Pouille has been that when we’re watching him, we’re more likely to be shouting, “Holy $%^#!! What. A. Shot!!!“
Pouille had a breakthrough performance at Wimbledon 2016, reaching his first Slam quarterfinal with impressive wins over Juan Martin del Potro (who had taken out #4 seed Stan Wawrinka in the previous round) and Bernard Tomic. At the USO 2016, Lucas won three consecutive 5-setters, concluding with a stunning 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 victory over Slam champ Rafael Nadal in the Round of 16.
In 2017, Pouille nabbed three titles, each on a different surface: Vienna (Indoor/Hard), Stuttgart (Outdoor/Grass), and Budapest (Outdoor/Clay). He reached a career high ranking of #13 in the spring of that year. Despite these good results, Pouille stalled slightly in his quest to be at the top of his game. Some bad luck with injuries and a tendency to get passive on court led to some erratic results, and he eventually dropped just out of the Top 30 in October of 2018.
So far, 2019 is looking good for the Frenchman. Seeking out a coach who could hopefully change his fortunes, he hired Amelie Mauresmo, Slam champion and former coach of Andy Murray. After never winning a match previously at the Australian Open, Lucas is currently in the semifinals, having beaten both (11) Borna Coric and (16) Milos Raonic. Pookie fans will be hoping this year to see lots more of his peak level of play, when he serves big and gets into an elegant rhythm of line-clipping rallies and explosive winners from every part of the court.
Get to Know Lucas Through the Eyes of TennisInsideOut.com:
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Anyone who loves pretty French boys has got to be excited by Pookie, as Val was when she first saw this photo posted by Hugo Winogradsky:
Here are some action shots…
Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images(Article continues below)
Lucas posts mostly in French on social media, but even if you don’t speak the language, he’s worth a follow for all the news, links, and pictures–it’s quite nicely done as a fandom resource.
#paris #TribuneSports @Claire_Arnoux 19h/20h30 #bein1 #tennis @la_pouille #foot #bastia #jeanlouisleca #lorient @cianimichael pic.twitter.com/A3tT6hZ5Et
— Clara PABAN (@pabanclara) October 30, 2016
Bonne Victoire en double avec mon pote @tsongaofficiel 1er tour du simple demain @bnpparibasmasters @adidastennis @adidasfr #Allez pic.twitter.com/XopTUbBwQ1
— Lucas Pouille (@la_pouille) November 1, 2016
Merci à tous pour vos encouragements j’ai passé une semaine incroyable ici à Bercy ! Encore merci au @bnppmasterspic.twitter.com/rSXGUa1rON — pouille lucas (@la_pouille) October 31, 2014
Joyeux anniv @la_pouille ! #21 #friend#bisouspic.twitter.com/8LTyr8hSYe
— chloe paquet (@ChloePaquet) February 23, 2015
With our limited French skills and the help of Google Mangle Translate, we can tell you that our Pookie’s timeline is full of positivity. He acknowledges fan support, bestows compliments readily, jokes around with his friends, and RTs good news and fun posts from fellow players. He also does sweet things like refer to Benoit Paire as “my Ben,” which moves him high up on Val’s list of “Good People.”
@benoitpaire merci à toi mon Ben #allez#goodmoment un plaisir et honneur de jouer avec toi !! — pouille lucas (@la_pouille) February 11, 2015
He’s also had a long-term relationship with Clemence Bertrand, who is so marvelously French she still appears to be frowning even when smiling, which you can witness for yourself on the many occasions she travels to be with Pouille and attend his matches.
They recently became engaged:
Clemence’s fiancé nearly broke tennis twitter when this photo was posted in early 2017…our Pookie is all grown-up now…!
Lucas Pouile at the practice in Tokyo ( photo via FFT/ Antoine Couvercelle ) pic.twitter.com/0FdGiIz9vP
— Rena (@_irenka23_) January 31, 2017
And finally, some awesome videos to give you a sense of the man in action:
(Updated: 01/23/2019)
