Women’s tennis great Amelie Mauresmo (second row, right) has coached Lucas Pouille into the Australian Open semi-finals. (Photo by DAVID GRAY / AFP) Amelie Mauresmo stepped down as France’s Davis Cup captain before she had even started in the role. And if we didn’t already know why, we certainly do now. It’s because of a rising star called Lucas Pouille. Despite entering the Australian Open with a low profile, the 24-year-old is now one of the four men still standing after he upset Canadian star Milos Raonic on Wednesday afternoon. Pouille took a little bit of time to get out of first gear, but when he started humming he proved far too good for the 16th seed, winning the quarter-final 7-6 6-3 6-7(2) 6-4 on Rod Laver Arena. MORE TENNIS NEWS CHAMP CHOKES: SERENA SENT PACKING IN ASTONISHING OPEN MELTDOWN ‘I HATE CALLING THE TRAINER’: BEATEN SERENA’S CLASSY ADMISSION WATCH: HUSBAND LOSES THE PLOT AFTER EPIC OPEN COMEBACK Raonic saved two match points serving to stay in it at 4-5 in the fourth set, but not a third. Two-time Grand Slam champion Mauresmo previously coached British star Andy Murray, taking over in 2014 - the last time a woman took over as coach of a notable male tennis player - and was appointed as Yannick Noah’s successor in June. But after Pouille drifted from inside the top-10 early last year to outside the top-30, he came knocking. “They (other male players) should (hire female coaches). She has the right state of mind, she knows everything there is to know about tennis,” Pouille said post-match. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman, you just have to know what you’re doing, and she does.” Pouille is the only man in the ATP top 100 coached by a woman from outside his immediate family. “A lot of people have asked me: ‘Is it different that she’s a woman? What do you do — can she come in the locker room?’” he told the New York Times recently. “But what is important is what’s happening on court, what’s happening to get ready for the match, and what happens after the match. I don’t care who is in the locker room.” Now, the young gun will face the either 14-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic or Kei Nishikori for a spot in his first slam final.<doc-sep>A year since Rafael Nadal scrambled calculations for the Australian Open by quitting with a hip injury in the quarters, Kei Nishikori did likewise on day 10 when he handed Novak Djokovic a free pass into the last four. The world No 1 plays Lucas Pouille on Friday night after leading 6-1, 4-1, when Nishikori, one of the most physically fragile players on the Tour, found the pain of a quad strain too much to bear. “After third game or fourth game when I was serving, I felt pretty heavy to my right leg,” Nishikori said. “After that I couldn’t really bend my knees and couldn’t jump up. I decided to stop.” The match itself revealed little, although Djokovic will be glad of the rest. The Serb, who has been growing in confidence, will shorten in favouritism to win a record seventh title, in the absence of Roger Federer, rudely bumped out by Stefanos Tsitsipas, who plays Nadal on Thursday night. If Nadal were to collapse again (he withdrew from the Brisbane Open to protect a knee injury), further chaos would disturb the final weekend. John McEnroe spread some of his anarchic charm earlier during his on-court interview with Pouille. “I’m getting the feeling that a lot of these guy players are going to be hiring female coaches now,” he said to the Frenchman after he had beaten Milos Raonic in the earlier quarter-final. Pouille, who is coached by Amélie Mauresmo was unimpressed, and replied: “They should, they should … It’s not about being a woman or a man: it doesn’t matter. You just have to know what you’re doing and she does.” It is a sentiment that would have resonated with Andy Murray, who was also coached by Mauresmo. Pouille added: “Men are coaching women, so why not the contrary? I mean, they don’t get it. She’s a champion. She’s a great coach.” One of the least-mentioned plus points of this shredded Australian Open men’s draw is the uncertainty injected into it by the random fall of favourites. The received wisdom was that the Canadian with the golden arm would bring too much power with ball in hand for the Frenchman with the cultured groundstrokes – nurtured in many practice sessions with Roger Federer – but it did not quite work out that way. Pouille prevailed 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-4 in just over three hours to earn his first slam semi-final place. Early intelligence on this quarter-final was mixed. While Pouille sat 14 points adrift of Raonic in the rankings at 31, there were doubts about the big man’s fitness given the number of times he had had to quit the Tour in the past with a hospital log of injuries. Then he put 30 aces past Nick Kyrgios in the first round, but the Australian reckoned the super-server’s chances of winning the title were not as strong as the numbers suggested. “There are players that are much better than I am, who can neutralise big servers so easily with the chip return, which I don’t have. [Raonic’s serving] would have beaten a lot of players, for sure. I probably would have beaten 75% of the draw today. But Milos played scary.” Raonic continued to play scary all the way to the quarter-finals, leading the tournament’s big hitters with 107 aces. The quickest of his new batch on Wednesday was 139 mph, as his pre-injury aura returned. The free points kept flowing, and Pouille soaked them up with the sort of defensive skills Kyrgios referred to. 02:12 'I had to dig deep': Novak Djokovic on overcoming injury woes – video Once he had clawed back Raonic’s 5-2 lead in the second set, he seemed to have the match under control after an hour and a half, but the contest see-sawed once more as Raonic forced the tie-break that kept him in the fight, closing the gap after wasting two of six set points to force a fourth set. Pouille, too, had been profligate. He had not been able to cash in on four break points in the ninth game of that third set and might have wondered if his window had been opened and closed. He was within touching distance of moving into the semi-finals, a victory in itself, whatever the result there. In three previous contests with the Canadian, Pouille could not win a set. In the space of two winning sets, he looked like sending him home in double-quick time. But, while he had only once in his career come from two sets down, Raonic is so often underestimated. Nobody expected him to beat Alexander Zverev, and he did so – comfortably. Yet Pouille did not represent as imposing a threat as others in the quarters, having struggled for more than 12 hours to reach the final 16 of a slam for the third time. He was a losing quarter-finalist at Wimbledon three years ago, and in New York later that year. The end was tight. Raonic was given the ball again at 4-5. Surely, went the theory, he would add to his aces tally, level it up and go on to victory in a fifth set. Pouille, though, chipped and teased his way to two match points, forcing Raonic to push a final backhand wide. Raonic ended up with 132 aces, way more than anyone left in the draw – but he is not alongside his peers still competing for a bigger prize. While Pouille’s tally of free-serving points – 84 – puts him a respectable fifth in the field, he will bring a bit more than raw intimidation to the semi-finals. Only six Frenchmen in the modern era have reached this stage. Pouille is the first since Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2010. To get there that year, he beat Djokovic, then lost to Federer in the semi-final, the Swiss going on to beat Murray in the final. It all seems so long ago.<doc-sep>
Last updated on .From the section Tennis Lucas Pouille had not won a singles match at the Australian Open before this year's tournament Australian Open 2019 Venue: Melbourne Park Dates: 14-27 January Coverage: Daily live commentaries on the BBC Sport website, listen to Tennis Breakfast daily from 08:00 GMT on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and watch highlights on BBC TV and online. Lucas Pouille reached his first Grand Slam semi-final with a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 win over 16th seed Milos Raonic at the Australian Open. The Frenchman gained his first victory over the Canadian in four attempts and will face world number one Novak Djokovic for a place in the final. Djokovic was 6-1 4-1 ahead against Kei Nishikori when the Japanese withdrew. The other men's semi-final will be between 17-time major winner Rafael Nadal and Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas. "I did really great with returns and kept my serve almost all the match," said 28th seed Pouille, whose coach Amelie Mauresmo worked with Andy Murray from 2014 to 2016. "I did not win a match before coming here, now I'm in the semi-final so I'm really happy. "We kept working hard - even after all the matches I lost in the Hopman Cup. I decided to take it step by step and give it all I have on every single point." Pouille entered the world's top 20 in 2016 after reaching the last eight at Wimbledon and US Open. However, he struggled in 2018, failing to progress past the third round of any of the majors. Coming into this match, the 24-year-old had lost his only match at the Sydney International and his three singles rubbers at the recent Hopman Cup. When he trailed Raonic 5-2 in the first set, it appeared that the Frenchman was set for another defeat in Australia, but he fought back to not only level the scores but then take the tie-break. Pouille grew in confidence and broke the 2016 semi-finalist in the fourth game of the second set with a superb lob en route to establishing a two-set lead. The contest swung back towards the Canadian in the third set as he saved four break points before sweeping aside Pouille in a one-sided tie-break. The fourth set went with serve until the 10th game when Raonic, after saving three match points, sent a volley wide to hand Pouille victory. "I really wanted to return as well as possible and make him play. I've taken care of my serve and did not put too much pressure on myself," added Pouille. "We had a plan and every single point I stayed focused and stayed on the plan we decided yesterday - it was a great match."