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NEW YORK -- Lucas Pouille is 22 years old and just reached his second Grand Slam quarterfinal. His countryman, Gael Monfils, recently turned 30 and is in his eighth.This season has been a breakthrough of sorts for both the youngster and the veteran, who meet Tuesday at the U.S. Open with at least one Frenchman guaranteed a spot in the semifinals.Pouilles ascension has been of the conventional up-and-coming variety. He reached a career-best ranking of No. 21 this summer after he made his first major quarterfinal at Wimbledon.Monfils has been advancing this far at the Grand Slams for more than eight years, though hes still better known for his flair for creative shot-making than his results. That seems to be shifting in 2016, and a sharply focused Monfils is 18-2 in matches hes played since a first-round loss at Wimbledon -- including the highest-level tournament title of his career at Washington.Of the eight mens quarterfinalists at Flushing Meadows, only Monfils and Juan Martin del Potro have yet to drop a set.The 24th-seeded Pouille, in stark contrast, has played three straight five-set matches -- none more draining than his upset of Rafael Nadal on Sunday.Mentally Im stronger, physically Im stronger, Pouille said of how his training has changed this season.Hell need all of that in his matchup with the 10th-seeded Monfils, against whom he blew a two-set lead at last years Australian Open in their only previous meeting.I think its going to be a tough match for me, but for him as well, Pouille said. Its going to be interesting.Also of interest to them will be Tuesdays other mens quarterfinal, when a third Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, takes on No. 1 Novak Djokovic. This is the first time since 1927 that three Frenchmen have reached the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open or its predecessor, the U.S. Championships.Djokovic has contested just two full matches in four rounds because of opponents injuries, and the men he defeated in the completed matches were both ranked outside the top 80.He played crisply in his win Sunday over 21-year-old Kyle Edmund, who was in his first Grand Slam round of 16, but its still unclear just how healthy or sharp Djokovic is. The ninth-seeded Tsonga presents a huge step up in competition, though Djokovic owns a 15-6 advantage in the head-to-head series -- including a victory in the 2008 Australian Open final for the Serbs first major title.WOMENS QUARTERFINALS: Caroline Wozniacki has an apartment in Manhattan, so the U.S. Open offers all the benefits of a home tournament for her -- sleeping in her own bed, lunch or dinner out with friends every day.I just can cook, she started to say, then corrected herself: Or I dont cook, actually. Lets not get ahead of ourselves here. My mom has cooked. Shes staying with me this week, which is nice. Shes cooked a couple of meals. She does my laundry, as well. Its nice to have Mom around. Usually I have to do all that myself.So perhaps thats the secret to Wozniackis run to the quarterfinals when she hadnt won four matches in a row since March 2015.Wozniacki is a two-time U.S. Open runner-up, at least. Her opponent Tuesday, Anastasija Sevastova, had never won four straight matches at any major until now and was retired for nearly two years before returning at the start of last season.Neither player is currently ranked in the top 45, but considering their popularity with the fans, theyre facing off in a night match at Arthur Ashe Stadium.The other womens quarterfinal features two top-10 players: second-seeded Angelique Kerber, this years Australian Open champ, and No. 7 Roberta Vinci, last years U.S. Open runner-up.Vinci has been bothered by a sore left Achilles tendon, not the sort of impediment thats ideal against an opponent the caliber of Kerber. Vinci planned to stay off her feet as much as possible Monday.Sure, I would like to wake up and not feel any pain, she said. I cant count on a miracle, though. Fake Sports Jerseys . Clarkson had been dealing with an elbow injury in early January and will be out of action for at least one week. 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DAmigo scored twice in regulation and added the shootout winner as the Toronto Marlies edged the San Antonio Rampage 5-4 in American Hockey League action. Essex 275 for 6 (ten Doeschate 109*, Wheater 59) trail Glamorgan 286 (Carlson 119, Morgan 55, Napier 4-46) by 11 runs Scorecard Look out Division One, the Essex boys are coming. Ryan ten Doeschate afterwards played down the effect his captaincy has had on Essex winning promotion but he led from the front to haul his side over the line in their penultimate match of the season, the Division Two title finally secured to raucous approval on a sweltering afternoon in Chelmsford. Ten Doeschate struck the single that took Essex to 250 and a second batting point - enough to move them clear of all challengers - and his fourth hundred of a most fulfilling first season in charge duly followed.The Championship has been a matter of delayed gratification for Essex fans, having seen their side finish third in each of the last three years, and they had to endure one or two trying moments against second-from-bottom Glamorgan before the job was completed. With only one promotion spot going this season, there was no margin for error but they will now return to Division One for the first time since 2010. A trip to Canterbury next week will serve only as a coronation.We made it hard for ourselves today and it would have been a lot nicer to fly past the winning post but as much as we tried to avoid it, this game was really about getting those bonus points and making sure we didnt have to go to Kent with any work to do, ten Doeschate said. Everyones delighted, its a bit weird winning it on day two…but I think its more a sense of relief up there and a great achievement to achieve what we set out to do at the start of the year.Promotion was the stated goal and, in Chris Silverwoods first campaign as head coach, Essex produced their most dominant Championship cricket in more than a decade. They have led practically from start to finish (Kent spent a week on top in July having played a game more), their six victories so far all by the imposing margins of either an innings or ten wickets.Three of those came as the season approached its climax as Essex, in ten Doeschates words, carefully eliminated their rivals one by one. After Kent were unexpectedly beaten by Northamptonshire last week, they came into this match knowing that bonus points could be enough; five were needed to extinguish Kents chances, six in the event that Sussex took maximum points from their game with Worcestershire. Essex were wobbling at 85 for 5 shortly after Sussex were dismissed for 229 in their first innings at Hove but ten Doeschate put on a century standard with Adam Wheater to settle the nerves.It was fitting that ten Doeschate was the man who made sure of things. Since July, his run of scores reads: 91, 52, 25, 83, 109, 60, 86, 109* and 109*; in the process he became the first Essex captain to pass 1000 runs for the season since Ronnie Irani in 2006. Irani, whose return as cricket committee chairman last year led to the winter shake-up in management, would doubtless approve of such talismanic displays.Ten Doeschate was also the man who scored the dramatic last-day hundred to fire Essex up the last time they were promoted, in 2009, but he has experienced enough near-misses over recent years to make this a moment to savour - even if he was keen to downplay his own role.I think the really rewarding thing about this year was the fact there was only one promotion spot available and we reeally made a pact that we were going to go for it, he said.ddddddddddddTo achieve it - and its only Division Two and were only the tenth best team in the country at the moment - is so rewarding, and being captain as well, it is probably my proudest and biggest achievement at Essex.Subconsciously weve tried to be more relaxed and place more faith in the players, and thats shown in the belief guys have shown in themselves. A year ago, or two years ago there would have been stages, in the same position, where we would have folded and the belief in the camp this year has been a lot better. I personally think the captaincy thing is overrated, I believe its more the environment you can create. I dont really have too much to say on it but things have clicked pretty much from the first game.Essex have barely clicked so well in four-day cricket since they won Division Two way back in 2002. Only in the middle of the season, when they lost twice in three games, to Leicestershire and Gloucestershire, did they falter. Since then, weve been really switched on, learned quickly from the mistakes weve made. Four-day cricket is never easy but weve pretty much been faultless over the last five or six weeks, ten Doeschate said.It has, as the captain was keen to stress, been a collective effort. Essex have the leading wicket-taker in the division, in Graham Napier, as well as two batsman with more than 1000 Championship runs (Tom Westley and ten Doeschate) and a third, Nick Browne, just shy of the mark; the team have racked up more than 500 on five occasions (twice passing 600), something no other Division Two county has done more than twice. Oh, and Alastair Cooks 643 runs at 91.85 have helped, too.The strategy that Essex set out at the end of last season has been followed with doctrinal zeal. Silverwood was appointed with the aim of getting Essex into Division One of the Championship and he has succeeded where Paul Grayson failed so often, at the first time of asking.Quarter-final defeats in the NatWest Blast and Royal London Cup were uncomfortably reminiscent of the Grayson era but, while limited-overs cricket is important to the clubs finances, Essex believe that being in the top-tier of the Championship is the best way to retain the talent they bring through. The XI for this match, which included the returning Wheater and Varun Chopra in anticipation of Division One challenges ahead, might be considered validation of such a strategy, with only ten Doeschate and Kent-born David Masters requiring honorary Essex boy status.The Championship side has come together as the perfect blend of youth and experience, at least as far as Division Two goes. How they will fare in Division One without Napier and Masters - whose retirement seems imminent - is one of the imponderables that Essex regulars will return to gnaw at periodically over the winter months.For now, Essex have their moment in the late-September sun. On an oppressively hot afternoon, a blissed-out crowd slowly swelled beyond four figures, applauding singles and cheering boundaries as ten Doeschate and his predecessor, James Foster, took them to the ECG equivalent of nirvana. Come on you Essex boys! was the cry, before ten Doeschate and Foster embraced. They are coming. ' ' '