2011 Australian Open Preview: Roger Federer vs Gilles Simon
2010 titlist, Roger Federer continues his title defence at the prestigious Australian Open this week as he meets Frenchman Gilles Simon for their second round match.
A former world number one, Federer finished last year ranked second in the world with five title wins and four unsuccessful final appearances. In addition to winning the 2010 Australian Open where he defeated number one Brit, Andy Murray, the Swiss also
won the crowns at Basel, Stockholm, Cincinnati Masters and the year’s end Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Losing to Murray, Federer put in final runs at the Montreal Masters and Shanghai Masters. He also made it to the finals of the Halle event and the Madrid
Masters though he failed to clinch a title win.
The world number two was one of six professionals to unofficially start 2011 playing at the exhibition event in Abu Dhabi. Defeating Robin Soderling in the semis, Federer failed to win the championship losing to Rafael Nadal in the final.
His official start on the ATP World Tour came at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open where he met and defeated defending champion Nikolay Davydenko to win his first crown of 2011.
After losing in the qualifying round back in 1999, Federer returns to the Australian Open for the twelfth straight year looking for his fifth title at the event. Should he win the title this year, Federer will become the only male professional to hold the
Australian Open five times beating living legend Andre Agassi’s record of four wins at the event. Federer’s first title win at the event came in 2004 when he defeated Marat Safin.
Driven with the desire to beat Agassi’s record, Federer started his title run at the event on Monday playing his opening clash against Slovak Lukas Lacko. Securing twin breadstick wins in the first two set, the Swiss wrapped up the match with a 6-3 win in
the third set sailing through to the next round in straight sets.
However, critics believe a shock exit in the second round might be witnessed since Federer moves ahead to play Frenchman Gilles Simon. A former world number six, Simon is the only player to lead Federer in a head to head to score. Having met twice in 2008,
Simon defeated the Swiss first in their second round match of the Montreal Masters and then later in the season finale event in Beijing.
Plagued with a back and knee injury, Simon missed most of the 2010 season including the Australian Open. Simon returned to the event on Monday for the fifth time after having debuted in 2006. His career best at the event came in 2009 when he made it to the
quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Rafael Nadal. Opening his title run at the event, Simon played Yen-Hsun Lu in the first round. Bouncing back from being down 0-1 in the set score, Simon registered a 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 win to move ahead
in the event.
Recovered from his injury, Simon is putting in his third straight participation at an event this year having started the year at the Brisbane International. Although he exited that event in the first round losing to Santiago Giraldo, he enjoyed a successful
run the following week competing at the Sydney event. Making it all the way to the finals, Simon won his first 2011 title defeating Serb Victor Troicki.
While commenting on his matchup with Simon, Federer said, "I will look just a bit more into what has worked and what has not worked against him in the past. It's up to me to mentally try to forget those matches or remember the good things I did, because
both matches we did play against each other were close. He's beaten the best in the world, really. If he can do it once, he always feels he can do it again, which he did against me. It's a tricky second round."
Prediction
Although Federer might be the favourite to move ahead in the draw, dismissing Simon completely would be a grave mistake. Given his recent form and the fact that he already leads in the head to head, a French win today wouldn’t be that surprising.
One thing that can be said with a certain degree of surety is that it will not be an easy win for the Swiss, definitely not straight sets.
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