2011 Medibank International: Gilles Simon powers into final
World number 41 Gilles Simon of France reached the title battle of the 2011 Medibank International Sydney on Friday.
The right-hander thrashed out his third seed opponent Ernests Gulbis of Latvia in two sets to confirm his spot in the final. Simon won 7-6, 6-0 in just over one hour.
The Frenchman will now take on the winner of the semi-final between Viktor Troicki and Florian Mayer of Germany.
Simon, who made his debut on the ATP tour back in 2002, is now in quest for his eighth career singles crown in his tenth final on the tour. He previously reached the final in Metz in September 2010.
The opening set was a tight one as both the players put up a good fight until the end. However, Simon eventually wrapped up the set by winning the tiebreak 7-1.
The Latvian, who committed 39 unforced errors in his semi-final match on Friday, did well to break his opponent’s opening service game with the help of a powerful backhand.
At that time, Gulbis looked quite good as he managed to survive two break points during the eighth game. However, after that Simon broke him at love and took the set into the tiebreaker before winning it in the end.
The second set proved to be a one-sided affair as Simon lost only three points in the decider and quickly sealed the set in just sixteen minutes.
Meanwhile, in the doubles action, the top seed pair of Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan also booked their spot in the final after ousting Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Juan Ignacio Chela in two sets on Friday. They won 6-3, 6-3 in less than an hour.
The Bryan brothers will meet Paul Hanley and Lukas Dlouhy, who earlier reached the final after beating the Indo-Pak duo of Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna in three sets.
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