What makes Lucas Pouille tick? ‘This little thing in the stomach’ | ATP Tour

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What makes Pouille tick? ‘This little thing in the stomach’

The 30-year-old is talking about overcoming recent injuries

September 21, 2024

Lucas Pouille knows what it’s like to win ATP Tour titles, reach the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings and compete in major semi-finals. Matchday adrenaline is nothing new for the Frenchman.

In 2017, Pouille held his nerve to defend the French Davis Cup title in front of his home crowd. It was an all-or-nothing final rubber against Belgium.

Now ranked World No. 142 and competing heavily on the ATP Challenger Tour this season, Pouille continues to live for that thrill of going head-to-head.

“Before the game, in the morning you wake up with this little thing in your stomach. You know it’s game day. You don’t wake up like other days,” Pouille told ATPtour.com at this week’s Saint-Tropez Open, an ATP Challenger Tour 125 event. “When I go on court, they’re definitely there, but I take it for granted. For me, it’s nice to have this kind of stress.”

In May, Pouille won his first major title in five years at the Mauthausen Challenger. It was an important moment for Pouille, who has been plagued by injuries. He had elbow surgery in 2020 and last year at Wimbledon, he broke his lower back.

In his first race back last September, Pouille tore a hamstring which forced him to end his season in September.

Seeking his second ATP Challenger Tour title on the Austrian clay this year was a turning point.

“It proved to me that I was able to win this type of competition. I was able to play five games a week. It gave me a lot of confidence in my body and in my abilities as well, to play every day,” said Pouille. “It was the first time I finished a week with a win in a while, five years actually, so it meant a lot.”

Ladies and gentlemen, Lucas Pouille is back 🏆

The former World No. 10 wins his first title since 2019 with a huge 6-3, 6-3 victory over Kovalik in Mauthausen!#ATPChallenger | @la_pouille pic.twitter.com/O1CaS8Ycaf

– ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) May 12, 2024

Pouille later advanced by qualifying for Wimbledon, where he entered a major grass court tournament for the first time since 2021. A quarter-finalist at the All England Club in 2016, Pouille started this year’s tournament with a five-setter win against Laslo Djere. Pouille reached the third round, but withdrew before facing ninth seed Alex de Minaur.

The Frenchman was also injured in the stomach, although he was in a different place than last year.

“I felt sick to my stomach [pain] first day against Djere. In the end I was able to win, it was good. After that I looked at the doctor who was in the French team. I ripped my abs by a few inches. It was Grade 2,” said Pouille.

Making the third round was already a tall order, considering that Pouille’s team advised him to retire in the second round against Thanasi Kokkinakis, who suffered an injury himself. The Australian retired in the third set.

“I decided to go to court because I want to play more. I decided to serve in a way where I could control the pain,” said Pouille. “If I got broken in the second set and started losing two sets at love, yeah, I think I would have thought about quitting.

“Then after the game, it was too much again [doctor] he said, ‘If you play now, you will have to stop for more than six weeks because it will be too much’.

There are good signs for Pouille, whose goal is to “make the Australian Open final”. He is on pace to play more than 50 games at all levels this season, something he hasn’t accomplished in a single year since 2017.

“It’s exciting considering I didn’t play in July [after Wimbledon]there is nothing in August and June, apart from the qualifying match at Wimbledon,” said Pouille. “It means that every time I enter the field in the competition I win more games, so that is a good thing. I’m crossing my fingers that I can stay healthy until the end of the season and play as many games as possible.”