2011 Sydney International Tennis Tournament: Frenchman Gilles Simon lifts championship trophy
Unseeded at the 2011 Medibank Sydney International, Gilles Simon of France picked up his career eighth Association of Tennis Professionals title as he scored a straight sets victory over Viktor Troicki of Serbia, on Saturday.
In a match that lasted 1 hour and 59 minutes, the Frenchman defeated Troicki 7-5 in the first set and 7-6 (7/4) in the second set to clinch the championship title. Furthermore, Gilles became the first Frenchman in 20 years since
former professional Guy Forget to win the Sydney title. An enraged Troicki hurled his racket into the court after being defeated by Simon for the fifth time in a row.
Coming out victorious at the tournament, Simon stated, "It's always good to win the tournament. You never know if you're going to win more, so I enjoy it every time. It's nice also for me to win here, to win some different tournaments.
I've played four times here and previously never got through the second round. I'm not seeded, so I know I will play one seed in the two first rounds. It's Roger, it's not the easiest one. But first I will to have defeat Lu one more time. I defeated him this
week, but we know how tennis works. Maybe Monday it's going to be harder."
Troicki admitted that he has never been able to take a set off the Frenchman.
"Right now I feel bit disappointed, but definitely it was a good week," he said. I feel I had a lot of chances that I didn't use, and obviously Gilles doesn't suit my game. For the last five matches I haven't been able to figure
out how to win a set off him."
Earlier, Viktor battled it out against Germany's Florian Mayer in the semifinals of the tournament. Mayer was beaten 6-4 in the first set and 7-6 in the second set to be sent home. Meanwhile, Simon defeated third seeded, Ernests
Gulbis of Latvia. Gulbis lost a disappointing 7-6 in the first set and 6-0 in the second to be eliminated from the tournament as Gilles went on to take the title.
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