Gilles Simon was down a set and a break to Jack Sock, but rallied to beat the American 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) in the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Friday. The Frenchman is a win away from matching his best result at this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event, having finished runner-up to Roger Federer in 2014. Simon came into the match on a high, having upset No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka in the previous round. However, Sock, who is into the doubles semi-finals in Shanghai alongside countryman John Isner, controlled the run of play in the first set by attacking relentlessly. The 24 year old pushed Simon off the court with powerful inside-out forehands, then closed out points...
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...
Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Gilles Simon’s partnership at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016 continues to bear fruit, as the Pakistani and the Frenchman advanced to the semi-finals with a 6-2, 6-2 performance against Robert Lindstedt and Alexander Peya on Friday.
Qureshi’s instincts at the net were well complemented by Simon’s strong returning. The pair broke serve six times to seal victory in 58 minutes. They will next face No. 2 seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram, who are sixth in the Emirates ATP Race To London.
Awaiting the winners of that match are Marcel Granollers and Marcin Matkowski, who beat Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 7-6(2), 7-5 to move into the final.
In an era where bigger, stronger athletes are succeeding on the ATP World Tour, lean and lithe Frenchman Gilles Simon has made a world class career for himself after modelling his game on Michael Chang.