Andy Murray vs Gilles Simon – Quarterfinal Preview: Western & Southern Open 2011
Dicken’s Tale of Two Cities takes to the Cincinnati Masters on Friday as the top ranked Brit Andy Murray takes on the world number twelve, French Gilles Simon for their quarterfinal match at the 2011 Western and Southern Financial
Open at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Cincinnati, Ohio on Friday, 19th August.
Kicking off the quarterfinal action for the day, the pair will meet in a seeded battle to fight it out for a berth in the final four of the event.
Seeded fourth in the event, Murray is expected to move past the French not because of a higher ranking position in the ATP ranking but because of the tad statistical edge he holds against the French. Starting the year at the 2011
Australian Open, Murray made it all the way to the finals as he moved past the Ukrainian Dark Horse, Alexandr Dolgopolov in the quarterfinals and Spaniard David Ferrer in the semi-finals. Although he fell in the final to the unstoppable Serb of 2011, Novak
Djokovic, Murray proved that he had what it takes to go toe-to-toe with the best of the tennis world.
However, this was as best as it got, playing in four hard court events that followed, Murray suffered early round exits at Rotterdam, Marseille, Indian Wells and Miami losing to players ranked much below him. Although his form
took a turn for the better in the clay and grass season of summer, Murray once more stumbled in early rounds as he returned to the hard courts. Playing at the Rogers Cup in Montreal last week, Murray suffered another early round exit, as he lost to South African
Kevin Anderson.
Murray’s first victory on hard courts on tour came only this week when he did away with former world number three, David Nalbandian in his second round match. He then made his way into the quarterfinal after destroying local qualifier
Alex Bogomolov Jr. in straight sets. Playing in his seventh year here, Murray holds a title here winning it back in 2008. Since then the Brit has put in a semi-final (in 2009) and a quarterfinal (in 2010) appearance here.
Attuned with the courts of Cincinnati, Murray has the better chance of besting the French rather than the other way round. Also the fact that the Brit sailed into the quarterfinals while Simon battled past with set losses doesn’t
hurt the Brit’s case either.
Add to that the one-sided 6-1 lead that Murray holds over the French and the winner will be clear as day. With seven meeting between each other, Simon was only able to defeat the Brit on their first meeting in 2007 when the pair
met for their first round match at the Rome Masters. However, returning the favour on the same surface the very next year, Murray amassed his lead against the Frenchman as he recorded six straight wins for himself. It’s almost as if Simon has forgotten how
to play when facing the Brit.
Albeit, the Frenchman currently records a higher win loss mark for the surface (13-8) than the Brit (8-5), the head-to-head and perhaps the mental block play against the Frenchman. Although Simon has risen twenty nine places in
the ranking since the start of this season, he still has more to bring to his came if he wishes to best any of the top four players. His season best performance on the surface came at the season opener in Sydney when he enjoyed a successful final run at the
event besting Viktor Troicki in the finals. However, the fact remains that the Frenchman crumbles when it comes to high pressure matches against highly skilled opponents.
Prediction: Although the Frenchman may put up a fight, Murray is expected to sail past into the semis in three sets on account of the statistical c*m psychological advantage he enjoys.
Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in the article are the writer’s own personal views and have nothing to do with bettor.com’s editorial policy.
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