LUCAS POUILLE
So far Lucas Pouille has made it through two of his fellow Frenchmen at Richard Gasquet and Gregoire Barrere to meet Roger Federer in the third round.
The 25-year-old Pouille was broken only once by Gasquet and will not lose a set when he reached the third round for the first time in three years.
It remains to be seen whether the pace of Lucas Pouille to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2016 was an anomaly, but he faced Juan Martin del Potro who returned from injury and Bernard Tomic fell down gracefully on the way.
ROGER FEDERER
World number three Roger Federer beat young zealous Jay Clarke with a direct set to get his place in the third round at Wimbledon.
Federer has beaten the next opponent Lucas Pouille once before at the Paris Masters in 2014 but the Frenchman has matured since then.
The Swiss number one was seeded second at Wimbledon this year and he appeared to have a clear chance in the semi-finals before he might struggle, with Nishikori a possible obstacle in the quarter.
Lucas Pouille vs. Roger Federer
Whereas Nadal was fired up to an unprecedented level - even by his standards - against Kyrgios, Federer has not approached putting things in the top gear. With an even more friendly draw than Tsonga, the third-ranked Swiss eased past Lloyd Harris and England's wild card Jay Clarke in the first two rounds (although he actually dropped the opening set to Clarke). Looking for the ninth Wimbledon title, Federer recently won for the 10th time at Halle to prepare himself well for success in SW19.
Then for 37 years Saturday is the second career battle with Pouille. They had previously faced each other five years ago on a closed hard court in Paris, where Federer drove 6-4, 6-4. Pouille is clearly a far different player now, but he slumped in 2019 after several memorable seasons. Going down to 28th place, Pouille is 12-12 mediocre in 2019 and 7-11 in his last 18 matches. He did not need to do much in rounds one and two, taking advantage of compatriot Richard Gasquet and Gregoire Barrere in two straight sets. Nothing about that outcome or anything Pouille has achieved since the Australian Open (semifinals) shows that he can seriously challenge Federer.
Choose: Federer in 3 defeats 11-14 matches
