Gilles Simon, Nicolas Almagro advance to the last four - Open de Nice Côte d'Azur 2012
Gilles Simon beats Thomaz Bellucci 7-5, 6-0
Second seed, Gilles Simon of France, played some flawless tennis at later stages of the match to beat 70th ranked Brazilian, Thomaz Bellucci, in straight sets 7-5, 6-0, in the quarter-final at the Open de Nice Côte d'Azur in France
on Thursday. It took the French star an hour and 31 minutes to topple his opponent and reach the semi-final draw.
The opening set saw tough competition, as both players held their serve in the first 11 games to take the score to 6-5 in favour of Simon. The Frenchman succeeded in breaking Bellucci at that moment and closed the opener at 7-5.
Simon completely dominated the second set, as he did not allow the Brazilian to claim even a single game, breaking him three times and clinching games six in a row to win 6-0.
The Frenchman hit a single ace and did not commit any double fault in the match. He had a low first serve percentage of 49 but managed to convert incredibly 20 of the 23 of them into points. The Nice, France, resident did not give
Bellucci any break point and converted four of the eight he got.
Simon is slated to meet Nicolas Almagro of Spain in the semi-final.
Nicolas Almagro defeats Steve Darcis 6-4, 6-4
Nicolas Almagro, seeded third in the draw, beat Steve Darcis of Belgium in twin sets 6-4, 6-4 to reach the semi-finals.
Almagro and Darcis opened the first set by winning their serves to level the score at 1-1. The Spaniard hit a blow to his opponent in the third game and consolidated on it to go up 3-1. Serving for the set at 5-4, he did not lose
even a single point and sealed it 6-4.
The Spaniard and Belgian started steadily in the second set, as they did not allow each other to break in the first eight games to square off the score at 4-4. Almagro struck in the ninth and held his next serve to grab it 6-4.
Ranked 14th in the world, Almagro won most of the points on his serve, as he bombarded 13 aces on his opponent and claimed 29 of the first deliver points. The right-hander put away the only break threat he came across
and availed two of the five chances he received.
This will be the fourth meeting between Almagro and Simon. The Frenchman leads 2-1 in the head to head record.
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