Gilles Simon upset No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-4 in the third round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Thursday. The 31-year-old Frenchman earned the win in 96 minutes when Wawrinka found the net and will face Jack Sock in the quarter-finals.
Though Simon trailed 4-2 in the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry coming into the match, he had not lost to Wawrinka on hard court since 2010. The Frenchman’s natural tendency to take the ball early made it difficult for Wawrinka to find the range on his forehand. The Swiss led 3-1 but a flurry of unforced errors put Simon a set and a break up after an hour of play. Wawrinka broke back to even the second set, but continued to leak errors and succumbed on Simon’s second match point.
Simon and Sock are tied 1-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. Sock won their most recent meeting in Stockholm last year. The American saved two match points to break an eight-match losing streak against Milos Raonic, the fifth seed, in the third round.
Sock withstood 14 aces and saved match points at 6/7 and 7/8 in the deciding set tie-break to beat Raonic, who has already qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, 0-6, 6-4, 7-6(8) in one hour and 53 minutes. Sock beat Raonic in their first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting at Memphis in February 2013.
“I’ve been on the other end of that three times last year,” said Sock. “We’ve had a lot of close matches in the past, it normally comes down to a few points against Milos. I’m happy to finally get one against him. It feels great.”
Raonic swept through the first set in 24 minutes, losing 11 points, while Sock won his first game for 1-1 in the second set. The American, who broke Raonic to 30 in the fifth game, kept his nerve in the deciding set to advance to the first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final of his career.
“I wish I had done better in the third set,” said Raonic. “I think the double fault I hit on break point down in the second set, gave him belief. Other than that, the match could have gone both ways. He stepped up and he took it.”
Raonic, who will compete at the season finale, at The O2 in London from 13-20 November, dropped to a 46-14 match record on the season. The Canadian had been attempting to complete his set of last eight appearances at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments.