Pune win gives Gilles Simon’s struggling career lifeline
PUNE: Gilles Simon’s tennis career took a turn for the worse towards the end of 2015.
Till a few months before that, he had won an ATP tour title at home in Marseille, was part of the country’s Davis Cup team and was ranked 15th in the world.
Though it was lower than his best-ever ranking of No 6, he had maintained his record of winning at least a title every year and stayed among the top 20 since 2005. His ability to use his limited talent judiciously helped him stay in the top bracket.
But in the next two years, Simon’s career went into a tailspin -- he lost his place in the Davis Cup team and dropped out of top 50 in the rankings. People were getting ready to write his epitaph. In 2017, he had a winloss record of 16-25.
But 2018 seems to have brought good tidings for him as the 33-year-old from France won the singles title and finished runners-up in doubles at the Tata Open Maharashtra on Saturday. He defeated South Africa’s World No 14 Kevin Anderson 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the final.
UNEXPECTED TRIUMPH
When he came to Pune, Simon was only hoping to do well in singles but at the end of the tournament, he will take a lot of confidence from his unexpected success.
His counter-attacking style of play coupled with consistent shot-making and abundant stamina was bearing fruit once again and Simon, who was unable to consistently stitch together three wins in the same tournament last year, looked in form again. He devised smart strategies against strong opponents like Marin Cilic and Anderson and executed them successfully.
The 250 ranking points he bagged for his Pune triumph will help him leapfrog more than a few places in the rankings but what bodes well for him is the win against world No. 6 Cilic in the semi-final. The way Cilic had started the match and taken a 5-0 lead, it looked like Simon will have to endure another disappointment. But the Frenchman lifted him game even as Cilic’s fell apart.
“I am very happy with the level I played and with how consistent I was in the tournament. Every title is super hard to win and doing so by beating players like Marin (Cilic) or Kevin (Anderson), it just feels great no matter if the last one was last week or three years ago. It is a very nice feeling,” Simon told reporters after the match.
CILIC DISAPPOINTS
While Simon ruled the roost, Cilic was happy to play couple of good matches as he gears up for the Australian Open. He looked sharp in the wins against below100 players Ramkumar Ramanathan and Pierre-Hugues Herbert but his game fell apart against a smart counter-attacking player like Simon.
Still the fact that he did manage to play well for two matches and one set will keep him in a positive frame of mind for the bigger battles in Melbourne.
As far as the Indian contingent’s performance in the country’s lone ATP 250 Series event goes, Yuki Bhambri and Ramkumar Ramanathan crossed the first hurdle but while the former blew a good chance to put it across Herbert, the latter could not do much against Cilic.