Lucas Pouille enjoyed a timely return to form in Stuttgart. The French fourth seed defeated the unseeded but vastly experienced Feliciano Lopez 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.
The Frenchman had not played especially well since winning the Budapest title in April. He had suffered in the first rounds of both Madrid and Rome to Pierre-Hugues Herbet and Sam Querrey. He was then beaten in the third round of Roland Garros by Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
This tournament has been a triumph for Pouille. He was edged by Lopez in a tight first set. In the first two sets Pouille was able to win just two points vs the Lopez first serve.
There were no breaks in the second set, but Pouille managed to narrowly win the tie-break 7-5 to force a decider. Pouille was able to break Lopez’s serve by virtue of winning twelve points against the left-hander’s serve. Pouille’s own serve helped him avoid surrendering a break himself as he hit ten aces in the decider (he hit twenty-nine in total in the match.)
Pouille’s run to the title saw him avoid facing any seeded players. He defeated Jan-Lennard Stuff, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Benoit Paire, and Lopez.
Lopez knocked out seventh seed Gilles Simon in the first round, and Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals. He also defeated the in-form Mischa Zverev in the semi-finals.
Lopez moves on to the Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club, where he faces fellow veteran Stan Wawrinka in the first round. Pouille will face Jan-Lennard Struff for the second time in consecutive tournaments in the Halle first round. Pouille is in the same section as top seed and Australian Open champion Roger Federer.
