2011 Sony Ericsson Open: Janko Tipsarevic vs. Gilles Simon preview
World Number 44 Janko Tipsarevic takes on Frenchman Gilles Simon in the fourth round of the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open on Tuesday night at Miami.
The Serb defeated German player Philipp Petzschner in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 to reach the fourth round of this year’s ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Miami tournament, setting up a meeting with French pro Gilles Simon in this round. Simon is seeded twenty-fifth at the tournament, and defeaed Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas to reach the fourth round against his Serbian opponent.
Janko Tipsarevic, whose highest ranking so far is World Number 33, began his 2011 Miami Masters run by defeating Dutch pro Robin Haase in a tricky first round match. He emerged victorious with a scoreline of 6-4, 7-6(5) and took on eighteenth seed Marin Cilic of Croatia in the next round. The Serbian defeated his opponent wand went on to oust Petzschner, thereby setting up a fourth round confrontation with Gilles Simon.
Simon, on the other hand, is currently ranked World Number 27. He received a bye in the first round of the tournament, and proceeded directly to the second round where he took on German tennis pro Rainer Schuettler. Simon scored an easy victory over the qualifier, beating him with a 6-4, 6-3 scoreline. His next opponent was Cueva, who put up a greater fight before Simon was able to quell him with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win.
Tipsarevic has taken part in the Miami Masters four times in the past, producing his best results at the 2008 ATP Masters Series Miami. The Serbian was ranked World Number 41 at the time, and defeated players Yen-Hsun Lu, Fernando Verdasco and Thomas Johansson to reach the fourth round against Mikhail Youzhny, who was ranked World Number 11 at the time. Surprisingly, Tipsarevic ousted the Russian pro in three sets with a bagel and proceeded to the quarterfinal against Nikolay Davydenko, who ended his run in straight sets.
On the other hand, Simon’s best run at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Miami was in 2009, when he was ranked World Number 8. The player was seeded at the tournament and received a bye into the second round, managing to defeat Australian former World Number 1 Lleyton Hewitt in straight sets. His next opponent was German player Rainer Schuettler, whom he defeated in three sets to proceed to the fourth round against French pro Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Tsonga ended his run at the tournament.
Gilles Simon and Janko Tipsarevic have played against each other once before, meeting in the round of the last 16 at the hard courts of Rotterdam in 2008. Simon managed to defeat Tipsarevic in difficult straight sets, winning the match 7-6(4), 7-6(4). However, this match took place in 2008 and the dynamics of the games of both players have definitely shifted since then. At this point, a winner is hard to predict.
Tags: