Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon is a French former tennis player. He turned professional in 2002 and won fourteen singles titles on the ATP Tour, and attained a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 6, on 5 January 2009.
Personal life
Gilles Simon was born in Nice but grew up in Fontenay-sous-Bois, outside Paris. His nickname is "Gilou". His mother is a doctor. His father works for an insurance company. Gilles has a brother.Supported by his parents, he started playing tennis at the age of six. Owing to a growth delay that runs in the family, he was shorter than most children of his age during his early teenage years. This is the reason he cites Michael Chang as a major influence, as his comparatively small frame proved that size was not the only factor in playing tennis.
Simon and his wife have two sons, born in 2010 and 2013.
Career
2002–2005
Simon began his professional tennis career in the summer of 2002, competing at multiple Futures tournaments in France before playing in tournaments outside the country of his birth. His first Futures title came in Lisbon, Portugal, in June 2003, and he reached the quarterfinals of three other tournaments. He then captured his second title in Jamaica in September. During 2004, he saw three wins in France and another in Algeria.Simon made his ATP Tour debut in Metz, France in October 2004 as a 19-year-old.
In January 2005, he won his first ATP Challenger hardcourt tournament in Nouméa, New Caledonia, and defended it the following year. Ranked as world 113, Simon made his Grand Slam debut at the 2005 French Open, losing in the first round to Olivier Patience in four sets.
2006: Reaching the top 50
Simon competed at the Australian Open, where he beat Nicolás Massú and Tomáš Berdych, before being defeated by No. 13 Thomas Johansson in the third round. After this result, he broke into the top 100 for the first time, climbing 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 lost to Nicolás Almagro. He also made it to the semifinals in Casablanca, as well as the round of 16 in both the ATP Masters Series tournaments in Monte Carlo and Hamburg. At the end of the year Simon was ranked 45th in the world.
2007: First & second ATP Tour titles
At the beginning of the year, Simon won his first ATP title at the Open 13 in, Marseille, France. En route to the final, Simon beat Lleyton Hewitt, Jonas Björkman, and Robin Söderling. In the final, Simon defeated Marcus Baghdatis.In September, he won his second title of the year and of his career at the Romania Open in Bucharest. He defeated Victor Hănescu in the final. He broke into the top 30 for the first time on 5 November, and finished the year as No. 29 in the world. By the end of the year, his career record against top-10 players was 4–5.
2008: Reaching top 10
Simon reached the quarterfinals in Marseille, defeating world No. 3, Novak Djokovic, in the second round. He reached the semifinals in Rotterdam the next week.In May, he entered Casablanca as a qualifier due to his late entry to the tournament, even though his ranking was high enough to be seeded. Simon went on to win the tournament, defeating Julien Benneteau in the final. After his third-round loss to fellow French Richard Gasquet at Wimbledon, Simon left Europe for the United States to familiarize himself with the hardcourts before the US Open Series. He won the Indianapolis Tennis Championships and hit a career-best No. 25.
The following week, he competed at the Canada Masters in Toronto, including a win over world No. 1, Roger Federer, in the second round, before losing in the semifinals to German veteran Nicolas Kiefer. This resulted in an entry into the top 15, three ranks behind the French number one, Richard Gasquet.
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, but lost in the first round to the Indian team of Bhupathi and Paes. In singles the Frenchman reached the third round before falling to James Blake.
At the US Open, Simon was seeded No. 16. On day six, he lost in the third round to the 17th seed Juan Martín del Potro, in a five-set match that lasted 3 hours and 47 minutes.
On 14 September, Simon won his third title of the year and fifth career title, defeating Carlos Moyá at the Romanian Open. Simon entered the Madrid Masters the following month, defeating No. 11 James Blake and No. 14 Ivo Karlović to reach the semifinals. In the semifinals, he defeated world No. 1, Rafael Nadal, in three sets, in a match that lasted 3 hours and 23 minutes. Simon lost the final to world No. 4, Andy Murray, in straight sets. The tournament boosted Simon to a career-high world No. 10, displacing Richard Gasquet as French No. 1. By the end of 2008, France had four players in the top 20, for the first time since computer rankings were established in 1973. The French paper L'Équipe grouped the four player as néo-Mousquetaires. French TV Canal+ went on to produce a documentary series that followed the four French players and their touring around the world. The series "Les 4 Mousquetaires" went on the air for two seasons during 2009 and 2010.
On 3 November, he qualified for the Tennis Masters Cup, a tournament usually reserved for the world's top eight players in Shanghai, after Rafael Nadal withdrew due to knee complications and fatigue. He was drawn in the red group with Roger Federer, Andy Murray, and Andy Roddick. In his first round-robin match, he beat defending champion Federer. Simon lost to Murray in his next match, but followed it with a victory over Radek Štěpánek, who replaced the injured Roddick. After Murray defeated Federer in the final round-robin match, Simon qualified for the semifinals, where he lost to world No. 3, Novak Djokovic, in three sets. After this, he achieved a career high of world No. 7.
In December, he played in the newly formed 2008 Masters France exhibition tournament for the eight French players who had performed best at the four French tournaments. He qualified from the round-robin group stage with victories against Julien Benneteau, Marc Gicquel, and Josselin Ouanna. In the final against Michaël Llodra, Llodra pulled out with a shoulder injury, resulting in Simon's becoming the inaugural winner of the tournament.
2009: Australian Open quarterfinal
Simon started the year off rising to a new career-high of world No. 6 and played at the Hopman Cup, teaming up with compatriot Alizé Cornet to form the French mixed doubles duo.Simon played at the 2009 Australian Open, as the sixth seed, where he reached the quarterfinals before losing to world No. 1, Rafael Nadal.
He participated in the Davis Cup with other French team members Michaël Llodra, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Richard Gasquet. The team competed against the Czech Republic from 6–8 March. Simon lost to Tomáš Berdych, and then played Radek Štěpánek. Simon lost to Štěpánek, which gave the Czechs a 3–1 lead, and France was out of the Davis Cup in the first round for the first time since 2000.
He went into the Miami Open ranked No. 7 in the world. He reached the fourth round before losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Simon played at the Estoril Open as the top seed, before losing to Albert Montañés, in the third round. He competed with fellow players Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Jérémy Chardy, forming the French team at the ARAG World Team Cup in Düsseldorf. He lost to Robin Söderling and Rainer Schüttler.
He entered Roland Garros as the seventh seed and reached the third round, losing to Victor Hănescu. During the match, he injured his right knee. Although he finished the match, the injury developed into a chronic issue. At Wimbledon, Simon reached the fourth round where he lost to unseeded Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero.
During the 2009 US Open Series, he played at the Rogers Cup where he lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round. One week later, he played at the Cincinnati Open where he defeated Nikolay Davydenko en route to the quarterfinals, where he would lose to world No. 4, Novak Djokovic. At the 2009 US Open, Simon equalled his best result of third round before retiring with a right knee injury during his third-round match against Juan Carlos Ferrero. Simon then won his first title of 2009 at the Thailand Open, defeating Viktor Troicki in the final.
Simon returned to France to play in Lyon and lost in the semifinal to Michaël Llodra. At the next tournament in Valencia, he lost to Mikhail Youzhny in the quarterfinal. He continued to Bercy to play at the Paris Masters where he was seeded 11th and had a first-round bye. In the second round, he faced Ivan Ljubičić. While lunging to return a wide serve, he aggravated a right knee injury that has been bothering him for half of the 2009 season. Although with his movement severely hampered, Simon decided to play on to finish the match in front of an enthusiastic home crowd. He went on to win the match. In an interview during the Paris tournament, Simon said that the doctor had recommended that he take at least two months to recover from his knee injury.
2010: Seventh career title
He started the 2010 season with an exhibition event, the World Tennis Challenge in Adelaide. Simon struggled with injury and lost three straight matches, including to the home favourite Bernard Tomic. He pulled out of the Australian Open due to his knee injury. He did not make any appearances in the 2010 season until mid-February, at the 2010 Open 13 tournament in Marseille, losing in the first round.The injury eventually caused Simon to miss the entire spring European clay-court season, including the French Open. He returned to the tour in mid-June winning two rounds in Eastbourne, before losing to Michaël Llodra in the quarterfinals. At the 2010 Wimbledon tournament, Simon reached the third round. He began the summer US hardcourt season by participating in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C. reaching the quarterfinals. However, he suffered first-round defeats in his next two ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, the Rogers Cup in Toronto and the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. He moved on to New York to take part in US Open, reaching the third round. He went on to meet the No. 1 player Rafael Nadal in the third round. Before the match, upon hearing about the birth of Simon's son, Nadal jokingly offered to buy Simon a flight ticket back to Europe to see his son before the match. Simon stayed, and lost to the eventual champion Nadal.
Simon then entered 2010 Open de Moselle as a wildcard. Originally, he did not plan to play the tournament because his son was supposed to be due that week. He took his newly extended family to Metz and eventually won the tournament by beating Mischa Zverev in the final. This was his seventh career title, coming only weeks after the birth of his first child. During the award ceremony, he thanked his girlfriend for the support and called the victory a "family effort."
The rest of 2010 was more ups and downs, indicating that after returning from the serious knee injury, he was still struggling to find his consistency. He went on to participate in two Asian tournaments. He beat Sam Querrey and Michael Berrer to reach the quarterfinals of the China Open in Beijing, but lost to Djokovic. He then lost in the first round of the Shanghai Masters to Stanislas Wawrinka. After Asia, he returned to France to play Open Sud de France in Montpellier, where he reached the quarterfinals. The next tournament was the Valencia Open 500, where Simon beat two seeds en route to his semifinal appearance, only to lose to the Spanish qualifier Marcel Granollers.
In December 2010, Simon was picked to play the Davis Cup final for France, which was hosted in Belgrade, Serbia. The final was filled with controversies over which player was to be called on to play each match. France called on Simon to play Novak Djokovic in day one, while others were expecting Michaël Llodra to play, based on Llodra's good form in the Paris Masters. Simon lost the match in three sets. When France won the doubles and led 2–1 going into day 3, the French team seemed to be on its way to yet another Davis Cup victory. But day 3 opened with Djokovic in strong form defeating Monfils in three easy sets, leaving the championship to a deciding fifth match. The schedule originally stated that the fifth match was to be played by Janko Tipsarević and Simon. Last-minute replacement saw both replaced by their teammates Viktor Troicki and Michaël Llodra, respectively. The fifth match ended in anticlimactic fashion with an overwhelming victory for Troicki in three sets. Serbia won the Davis Cup for the first time in history. France's defeat caused some to question the choice of Llodra to play Troicki when Simon has a 4–0 head-to-head record against the Serb. Nevertheless, everyone agreed that Troicki and the Serbian team had displayed convincing performances over their French opponent, and the victory was well deserved.