Gilles Simon bows out to Adrian Mannarino in the first round – St. Petersburg Open 2011
World number 12, Gilles Simon of France, had an early shocker in the tournament, as he crashed out of the opening round at the hands of the 86th ranked fellow compatriot, Adrian Mannarino, at the St. Petersburg Open
on Monday.
The top seeded Frenchman battled hard for two hours and eleven minutes before he finally submitted in the third set, 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, to let the other French competitor into the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals)
World Tour 250 event.
Being played on the indoor hard courts of the Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the contest witnessed some quality tennis from the two fellow countrymen. Simon was off to a flying start and outplayed
Mannarino comprehensively to clinch the opener in no time. Tide turned in the very next set when Mannarino launched a series of forays to force his way back in the game and reeled off the last two sets to claim his surprise victory in a convincing fashion.
Mannarino kept his clean record against the 12th ranked Frenchman, defeating him for the second straight time in the running year. The French improved his year’s record by 15-21 and made his way to the second round of
the St. Petersburg Open. Simon equally matched him in most segments of the game but Mannarino kept securing crucial points in the matchup to come on top.
Mannarino drew the first blood in the third game of the match to register the first serve break of the day. Simon retaliated very quickly in the next game to fritter away his advantage. The top seeded Frenchman then nailed two
successive serve breaks in the sixth and eighth game to close out the opening set at 6-2.
The unseeded Frenchman broke Simon in the opening game of the second set but the top seed responded immediately with his fourth serve break of the day to level the scores at 2-2. Mannarino broke again in the ninth game to take
the second set at 6-4 and carried on his momentum in the final set by breaking Simon in the first game. He went on to close out the matchup at 6-4, getting through to the second round of the St. Petersburg Open.
Mannarino will either take on the Latvian wildcard, Ernests Gulbis, or the unseeded Czech competitor, Lukas Rosol, in the second round to fight for a quarter-final berth. Gulbis and Rosol will compete in the opening round clash
on Tuesday and the winner of the two will meet Mannarino in the second round.
Tags: