Gilles Simon avenges Flavio Cipolla to reach the quarter-finals – Open Sud de France 2012
World number 12, Gilles Simon of France, gave a treat to his home crowd with an exhibition of exceptional power-hitting to outclass the unseeded Italian opponent, Flavio Cipolla, in the second round of the Open Sud de France. The
second seed home favourite registered a crushing straight sets victory, 6-3, 6-2, to avenge his defeat at the hands of Cipolla and levelled the head-to-head series against him at 1-1.
The local crowd at the Arena Montpellier, in Montpellier, France, witnessed a brilliant show of dominance and class on Wednesday, with Simon cruising through the contest in a convincing fashion. The score line certainly didn’t
do justice with the level of effort put in by Cipolla in the contest. The unseeded Italian posed some real resistance on different occasions within the matchup but his inconsistency and lack of form led to his devastation.
Cipolla outplayed Simon in the round of 16 at the 2008 Estoril Open, when the Frenchman conceded the match due to injury. The Italian was leading 6-2, 5-3, in the contest before Simon pulled out of the contest to let him through
to the quarter-finals. Cipolla failed to pose the similar sort of performance on Wednesday and couldn’t break his opponent’s serve even once in the entire contest.
Action started off right from the very first game, with Simon surviving five deuces to hold his opening serve. The Frenchman counterattacked on his opponent in the very next game but couldn’t register a break point after fighting
four deuces. Simon finally converted a vital break opportunity in the sixth game and then held his serve to assert a substantial lead of 5-2. Cipolla couldn’t do much in the remaining games and submitted the first set at 3-6.
The second seed got hold of the following set with an early serve break in the opening game and went on with his aggression to register another break point in the seventh game. Simon closed out the matchup after bagging the second
set at 6-2, marching into the quarter-final round with authority.
Simon’s victory books him an all-French quarter-final against the surprise opponent, Guillaume Rufin, on Thursday. making through to the main draw by a wildcard entry, Rufin made the biggest upset of the tournament so far by defeating
the fifth seed Feliciano Lopez in straight sets, 7-6(5), 6-3. He will be eying for another upset victory over the second seed Simon in the next encounter and carry on his voyage for his maiden championship title.
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