Gilles Simon

Infobox Tennis player
playername= Gilles Simon


nickname = "Poussin", "Gillou"
country= FRA
residence= Neuchâtel, Switzerland
datebirth= birth date and age|1984|12|27
placebirth= Nice, France
height= height|m=1.80
weight= convert|65|kg|lb st|abbr=on|lk=on
turnedpro= 2002
plays= Right-handed; two-handed backhand
careerprizemoney= US$1,763,282
singlesrecord= 105–77
singlestitles= 5
highestsinglesranking= No. 13 (August 4, 2008)
AustralianOpenresult= 3rd (2006, 2008)
FrenchOpenresult= 2nd (2007)
Wimbledonresult= 3rd (2008)
USOpenresult= 3rd (2008)
doublesrecord= 12–40
doublestitles= 0
highestdoublesranking= No. 117 (January 28, 2008)
updated = September 15, 2008

Gilles Simon (born December 27, 1984) is a French professional tennis player who is currently ranked World No. 13 and French No. 2 as of July 2008. After turning pro in 2002, it took him five years to claim his first ATP Tour title, the 2007 Marseille Open. To date, he has won five ATP tournaments.In the second round of the 2008 Rogers Cup in Toronto, Canada, he upset World No. 1 Roger Federer in three sets.

Career

Simon began his professional tennis career in the summer of 2002, starting with Futures tournaments held throughout France before gradually branching out to other countries. He won his first Futures title in Lisbon, Portugal, in June 2003, and reached the quarterfinals of three other tournaments before capturing his second title in Jamaica in September of the same year. During 2004 he saw three wins in France and another in Algeria, thus collecting a total of 3 hard, 2 clay, and 1 carpet Future titles.

In January 2005, he won his first ATP Challenger tournament (on hard court) in Noumea, New Caledonia, and defended it the following year.

Ranked as World No. 113, Simon made his Grand Slam debut at the 2005 French Open, but lost in the first round to compatriot Olivier Patience in four sets.

2006

During the Australian Open, Simon beat Chilean Nicolás Massú and Czech Tomáš Berdych (who were 62 and 100 ranks ahead of him, respectively) before losing to No. 13 Thomas Johansson in the 3rd Round. After this Grand Slam result, he broke into the Top 100 for the first time, climbing from No. 123 to No. 89.

The Frenchman reached his first ATP Tour final in Valencia with wins over Andreas Seppi in the quarterfinal and Fernando Verdasco in the semifinal but ultimately fell to Nicolas Almagro, giving the Spaniard his first ATP title. Afterwards he got to the semifinals of Casablanca, as well as the Round of 16 in both the ATP Masters Series tournaments held in Monte Carlo and Hamburg.

The rest of the year was rather forgettable, however, with only two quarterfinals and a few first- or second-round losses. The only bright side for Simon was his progress in the rankings -- he broke into the Top 50 in May and managed to stay in the upper 40s/lower 50s for the rest of the season, finishing as the World No. 45 in December.

2007

Already by mid-February, this year began to be more fruitful for the Frenchman than the last. After a slow start in January, Simon kicked it up a notch -- with victories over Lleyton Hewitt, Jonas Björkman, Robin Söderling and Marcos Baghdatis all in a row, he was finally rewarded with his first ATP title in Marseille, throughout which he did not drop a set.

In Dubai, he avenged his loss to German player Philipp Kohlschreiber from the week before in Rotterdam; in the second round of Indian Wells, he bageled Tommy Robredo in the third set for the win (at the time the Spaniard was ranked No. 7 in the world).

In September, he won his second title in Bucharest.

He broke into the Top 30 for the first time on November 5th and ended the year as No. 29 in the world.

By the end of the year, his career record against Top 10 players was 4-5. Although three of those losses were from Robredo, two of the wins were over the World No. 4 Russian Nikolay Davydenko.

2008

Simon reached the quarterfinals in Marseille and the semifinals in Rotterdam the next week. Later during the grass court season, he reached the Nottingham quarterfinals.

In May, he won his third ATP title in Casablanca, with four of the five matches against fellow Frenchmen.

After his 3rd-round loss to countryman Richard Gasquet at Wimbledon, Simon decided to leave Europe for the United States earlier than he normally would have with the hope of getting used to the hard courts as well as the blistering hot summer weather before the back-to-back Masters Series events in Toronto and Cincinnati. Going into the Indianapolis tournament, Simon's world ranking was a career-best No. 25, and it was his first time playing in this particular US Open Series event. He battled his way through the heat to the final, where he defeated the 2007 champion Dmitry Tursunov in straight sets -- the only match of the tournament in which Simon did not have to play three sets.

The following week, he continued his winning streak at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, but was ultimately stopped in the semifinal round by German veteran Nicolas Kiefer; up until that point, Simon had won nine matches in a row. Afterwards, he not only broke into the Top 20 for the first time but also the Top 15, moving up eight ranks from No. 22 to No. 14. He is a mere three ranks behind the French No. 1, Richard Gasquet. He would have had a chance of immediate revenge against Kiefer as they had been drawn to face each other in the first round of the Cincinnati Masters if Kiefer had not withdrawn from the tournament due to injury. Instead, Simon played American lucky loser Rajeev Ram. However, his run was cut short when he lost in the second round to James Blake.

Simon participated in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, playing in the singles for France alongside Paul-Henri Mathieu, Michaël Llodra, and Gaël Monfils. He played doubles with Monfils, while Llodra and Arnaud Clément made up the other French pair. Although Simon and Monfils lost in the first round to the Indian team of Bhupathi and Paes, in singles the Frenchman reached the 3rd Round. He saw victories over the Swede Robin Söderling and the Argentine Guillermo Cañas before falling to the American James Blake again.

At the US Open, Simon was seeded 16th. On Day 6, he lost in the 3rd Round to the #17 seed Juan Martín del Potro in an epic 5-set match (4-6 7-6(4) 1-6 6-3 3-6) that lasted 3 hours 47 minutes. As a result, Simon became the 23rd casualty in del Potro's amazing winning streak, which dates back to early July.

So far, Simon's record against Top 10 players this year alone is 2-4. He is one of the eight people to have defeated Novak Djokovic and also one of the nine people to have defeated Roger Federer in 2008.

ATP Tour titles (5)

ingles (5)

ingles Finalist (1)

*2006: Valencia (lost to Nicolas Almagro) 6–2, 6–3

ingles performance timeline

External links

*
*
* [http://steveghelper.com/MatchResults.php?players=les+Simon&weeks=12 Simon Recent Match Results]
* [http://steveghelper.com/RankingHistory.php?player=Gil+Simon Simon World Ranking History]