Third seed Lucas Pouille came through the fourth all-French battle of the tournament in Metz, edging Julien Benneteau 7-6(2) 4-6 6-3 to reach the semi-finals at the Moselle Open.
Very little separated the two Frenchmen in the first two sets. Pouille brought out his best when it mattered in the first set tiebreak to take the lead. Benneteau raised his first serve percentage in the second set and got the first break of serve at the most crucial time as Pouille was serving to stay in it to level the match. Any hopes of a comeback from Benneteau were quickly stamped out as Pouille got his first break of serve early in the final set. He held on easily and broke again while Benneteau was serving to stay in the match to make his third semi-final of the year.
Tightly contested first set
Pouille opened the match with a huge crosscourt forehand winner off of a perfect sliced backhand down the line from Benneteau. Another huge forehand followed but two bad backhand errors leveled them up at 30-30. A big serve and a forehand wide from Benneteau gave Pouille the first hold of the match. Benneteau then tried to be attacking and dictate on serve in the next game but only drew errors in the process, leaving Pouille with two break points for an early lead. Two backhand errors from Pouille erased both and an ace brought up game point for Benneteau. Punishing forehands from Pouille and a nice put away at the net brought them back to deuce but another costly error from the Pouille backhand and a great pickup from Benneteau gave the unseeded Frenchman the hold.
An easy volley and a return winner gave Benneteau opportunities at 15-30 in the next game, but big serving from the number three seed allowed him to dictate the next few points and got him out of trouble to stay on serve and lead 2-1. Great defense and an impressive backhand passing shot from Pouille gave him another break point. A big serve erased it and a perfect lob gave Benneteau a game point and another hard fought hold of serve for 2-2.
Pouille's backhand showed some signs of improving in the next game as he hit a massive backhand winner down the line but the consistency still wasn't there. Big serves and a couple of errors from Benneteau saved a break point and the world number 18 scraped through another hold of serve. Benneteau came through his first easy hold of serve of the match and the first without facing a break point. Pouille's biggest weapons in his serve and forehand with the help of a gorgeous drop-volley got him through another tough battle on serve in the following game. The backhand of Pouille continued to improve but Benneteau still eased through another hold to bring the French pair to 4-4.
Benneteau fought off two Pouille set points as he was serving to stay in it with big serves arriving when he needed them most to get a crucial hold. The pressure then immediately switched to Pouille as he went 0-30 down at 5-5 but again managed to dig deep and reeled off the next four points to hold. Another mini battle on Benneteau's serve, which saw another set point for Pouille, once again went the way of the server to bring the Frenchmen to a tiebreak after just over an hour of play.
Pouille showed why he is ranked inside the world's top twenty and after going 1-2 down he completely dominated the rest of the tiebreak. The third seed brought out his best aggressive groundstrokes and dictated the next six points to seal the tightly contested first set 7-6(2).
First break gives Benneteau hope
Benneteau managed to halt the momentum in the opening game of the second set and got himself on the board with a quick hold of serve and after another tough hold, Pouille joined him at 1-1. The point of the match went the way of Benneteau as he drew Pouille into the net and lobbed him twice. The first one Pouille got back with a tweener but the second landed in the net but both players were left smiling.
Another good hold sealed with an ace for Benneteau left them at 3-2, still with no breaks of serve in the match and plenty of missed opportunities. Great play from Pouille on serve took him to 40-0 but a string of loose shots left Benneteau with a break point. The third seed quickly erased it with an ace and eventually held on to level the set at 3-3.
The first break of serve of the match finally came at the most important time for Benneteau. Pouille found himself 0-40 down as he was serving to stay in the set. He fought hard and served well to get back to deuce but after a grueling game and three missed game points for Pouille, Benneteau got the breakthrough on his fifth set point to steal the set 6-4 and level the match.
Pouille back on track
Benneteau came through another tight hold of serve in the opening game of the final set and Pouille followed with a much easier hold to 15. Pouille threw in a change of pace with a perfectly timed drop shot that caught Benneteau off guard and a first double fault from the world number 238 gave Pouille a lead on his compatriots serve at 15-30. A passing shot from the number three seed and an error from Benneteau gave Pouille his first break of the match on his eighth break point.
Pouille looked to be in danger as he tried to consolidate the break with a loose error and a double fault giving Benneteau opportunities at 30-30 but he kept his momentum going with a great backhand slice winner and a perfectly worked baseline rally to hold on to the lead.
Benneteau got his second hold of the set in another tightly fought game and Pouille held on to his lead, hitting two aces in a row to go ahead 4-2. Big serving from the unseeded Frenchman kept him down to just the one break deficit, but with Pouille having only dropped one point on his first serve so far in the set, a comeback was looking unlikely. Another two aces in the first love hold of the match brought Pouille's total to seventeen.
The third seed upped the aggression on the return as Benneteau was serving to stay in the match. Deep returning brought some loose errors from Benneteau and double match point for Pouille, which he sealed with a backhand down the line winner to make his way into the semi-finals in Metz after a two hour and twenty-minute battle.