Tristan Boyer Shocks Pouille At Sarasota Open

By Scoop Malinowski

One of the biggest tennis upsets this century happened tonight at the Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open as unknown Tristan Boyer stunned former world no. 10 and Davis Cup hero Lucas Pouille 75 46 63 in the final round of qualies.

Boyer is 21 years old, from Pasadena, CA and ranked around 1400. The official announcer of the Sarasota Open Ray Collins and I couldn’t find any info on Boyer for the pre-match intros so before the match as Boyer hit with his coach Diego Christian, I gleaned some info from Christian who told me Boyer was ITF no. 6 ranked junior a few years ago, and his best result was QF of junior AO. He also played two years at Stanford then decided to turn pro.

While he was hitting to get ready for the biggest match of his life vs. Pouille, who once beat Rafael Nadal in a grand slam in five sets, Boyer hit with his coach while Pouille lounged 20 feet away next to the practice court on a couch with his wife and coach, giving off a vibe like he didn’t need to do anything pre-match, just walk out and win.

Boyer was more than ready for the challenge of Pouille, the match of his life, not the least intimidated or afraid to win, and he won the close first set. Pouille settled down and won the second and then the third set was a battle. Pouille yelled CMON! after a big point in the third set, revealing he knew he was in a fight and he was going to do anything for the win. Boyer saved a break point at 2-2 and then things seemed to go his way, he kept pounding his shots with conviction and belief that he could win. He hit a couple of lines, got a couple of net cord breaks, then Pouille broke a string on a big point and suddenly it was Pouille who cracked and was broken at love for 5-3. Pouille surely expected Boyer to get tight and choke. That’s what usually happens in these situations of young unknown vs established star.

But Boyer is not your ordinary player and he proved that tonight emphatically on stadium court with only a dozen or two fans watching after 10 pm on this chilly and windy Monday evening. Boyer would serve for the biggest upset in Sarasota Open history and one of the big shocks in perhaps the decade or even century. The unknown nobody named Tristan Boyer was about to slay the former top ten dragon.

Boyer kept blasting his shots, he’s a big strong guy with firepower on both wings. He got to 40-15 then double faulted. But on the second match point he kept going for his shots and it was Pouille who netted a backhand. It was over. Pouille was absolutely shocked but shook hands and left the court in a daze at what has to be the most unexpected loss of his ATP career.

Remember, Pouille did no pre-match warmup at all. While Boyer, I would discover after the match after talking with Christian again, actually hit three times today – once at 11:30 am, then again at around 6pm during the Kuzuhura-Rybakov long three set duel on stadium court. And then again just before going on court vs Pouille.

I first noticed Boyer two days ago as he was outhitting Juan Manuel Cerundolo so hard that the Argentine was returning serve and having to hit shots 10 ft behind the baseline and practically against the back fence. Christian told me Boyer beat Cerundolo in the practice set 62. Boyer also beat Hugo Dellien in a practice set this weekend 62 which provoked the Peruvian, who has a win vs Alexander Zverev, to scream on the court something like, “How the hell are you losing to this nobody?!!?”

So Boyer is in the main draw of an ATP Challenger, the best result of his life. And Pouille is on his way to Tallahassee Challenger, where he will continue his comeback after three years of elbow problems suffered at the 2019 Australian Open where he reached the semifinals, a three set loss to Novak Djokovic.

Lucas Pouille · Pasadena · Sarasota Open · Stanford · Tristan Boyer

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