http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/06/sports/tennis/jo-wilfried-tsonga-gael-monfils-lucas-pouille-novak-djokovic.html 2016-09-06 04:09:38 Three Frenchmen in U.S. Open Quarterfinals Are All Eager to Topple Novak Djokovic For the first time since 1927, France has three players in the final eight: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gaël Monfils and Lucas Pouille. === It will be The French have strength in numbers, with Djokovic’s quarterfinal opponent, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, joined in the top half of the draw by the veteran Gaël Monfils and the newcomer Lucas Pouille. But Djokovic, despite his injury concerns and lack of match play in New York because of injuries to two opponents, remains favored to do what he usually does to the French: spoil their fête. Djokovic has been using them for inspiration throughout his career. In 2008, he won his first Grand Slam singles title by defeating Tsonga in the Australian Open final. Two seasons later, he led Serbia to its first Davis Cup title, winning singles matches against Gilles Simon and Tsonga in a 3-2 victory over the French in the final in Belgrade. Djokovic has often cited that cathartic national moment as pivotal in his rise to No. 1 and his week-in, week-out dominance. Six years later, the French are still chasing him, and Tsonga will take another swing on Tuesday night when he faces Djokovic in the men’s night match at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Monfils and Pouille will play during the day in an all-French quarterfinal that few would have predicted immediately after the draw. But that was before Monfils, looking particularly on task, rumbled through his first four matches without losing a set. And that was definitely before the 22-year-old Pouille “He absolutely deserved to get that win,” Djokovic said of Pouille. “We all know how tough it is to play against Nadal. He makes you work for each point. So very impressive from Lucas. “We all knew last couple of years he has a big game; he has a potential if he gets it together. He’s doing it. He’s moving better. He’s using the court very well. Quarterfinals of Wimbledon. Quarterfinals here. Now he’s coming closer to top 10. He has the quality to be there.” This was, make no mistake, not the Nadal of yore. He produced too little depth with his groundstrokes and, above all, too little precision under the greatest pressure with his forehand. He missed three key forehands in the final tiebreaker, the last at 6-6 on a ball struck well inside the baseline that ended up in the middle of the net. But Pouille (pronounced PWEE) still had to win a final extended rally, nailing a forehand inside-in winner on the 16th shot of the exchange. Once he picked himself off the ground, Pouille celebrated with a wild-eyed look and an extended tongue worthy of a New Zealand rugby player mid-haka. “I think Lucas is doing a lot of good for French tennis because he’s someone who states his ambitions,” said a fellow French player, Nicolas Mahut. “He does so without arrogance and with humility, but he has clearly said his goal is to win a Grand Slam title, and he takes responsibility for that. “He works and has hired the type of consequential staff he needs to reach that goal, and he’s not afraid of it. He has laid out his path. He knows where he wants to go, and I think that’s good for everyone.” Tsonga, it should be said, has not exactly failed to declare his own ambitions throughout his career. Monday’s quarterfinal will be his 14th at a Grand Slam tournament, more than any other French player in history. But he and Monfils, for all their power and talent, both still lack that crowning moment: a Grand Slam singles title, or even a Davis Cup title. “That would be a real disappointment if we don’t win at least Davis Cup,” said Mahut, who is part of the world’s top-ranked men doubles team, with the Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert. Mahut and Herbert were upset in the first round at the Olympics last month in Rio de Janeiro, a tournament that ended with no French medals and no shortage of French infighting. “Above all, what we are really, really good at is creating controversy,” Mahut said of French tennis. “Each time, we’re No. 1 at that.” Mere weeks later, brighter days have arrived. The last time the French had three men in the quarterfinals of the United States championships was in 1927 when René Lacoste, Jean Borotra and Jacques Brugnon all reached the final eight, with Lacoste going on to win the title. They were three of the four Frenchmen known as the Musketeers. Tsonga and Monfils’s generation has been nicknamed the new Musketeers, and however this year’s U.S. Open and their latest duels with Djokovic turn out, they will have another chance at the Davis Cup: They are set to travel to Croatia later this month for the semifinals.