Gilles Simon battles past Jurgen Melzer into second round – Western & Southern Open 2011
Rated at number 12 in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Rankings, Gilles Simon of France carried on his brilliant form to outplay the 18th ranked Austrian, Jurgen Melzer, in the opening round of Western and Southern Financial Group Masters, on Tuesday afternoon.
The contest took place at the outdoor hard courts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, near Cincinnati, United States, with the 10th seeded French wrapping up victory after thrilling three sets at 6-7(3), 6-3, 7-5. Melzer fought valiantly for two hours and twenty nine minutes of play before finally submitting in the third set to let Simon through to the second round of the ATP Masters Series event.
The contest remained evenly poised till the very last moment, with the momentum constantly oscillating in the matchup. Simon was off to a steady start in the competition but gained his pace after losing the opening set tie breaker and reeled off the following two sets to conclude the match in his favour.
10th seeded Simon avenged the defeat which he suffered at the hands of Melzer the last time he faced him earlier this season. The Austrian defeated Simon in the Round Robin stage of Davis Cup playoffs in Austria but the French won his Tuesday’s contest to level his all-time head-to-head record against Melzer at 2-2. Simon battled from a one-set deficit in the matchup to register his 31st victory of the current ATP season to make it to the second round of Cincinnati Masters.
The contest was extremely competitive right from the beginning and no serve breaks were witnessed in the opening set, dragging the opener into the tie breaker round. Simon got choked out in the decider, bagging just three points to lose the set to Melzer at 6-7(3).
The French took less time to make a tremendous comeback in the very next set, nailing two serve breaks, before suffering one from Melzer towards the closing of the second set, to level the matchup at 1-1. Frustrated Melzer got his way back in the final set and fought four break points from the French opponent but Simon finally cracked one in to close out a comprehensive victory at 7-5, getting through to the second round of the tournament.
Up next for Simon is the unseeded Serb and the semi-finalist at Montreal Masters last week, Janko Tipsarevic. The Serb won his opening round matchup against the French qualifier, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, to book a battle with Simon in the second round.
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