Gilles Simon bows out to Juan Monaco in the second round clash – BNP Paribas Masters 2011
Local crowd at Paris, France, was in for sheer surprise, as the home favourite, 10th seed Gilles Simon, crashed out of the second round of the BNP Paribas Masters at the hands of the 34th ranked Argentine
opponent, Juan Monaco, on Wednesday evening.
The 14th ranked Frenchman suffered a humiliating defeat in straight sets, 4-6, 0-6, to let Monaco through to the round of 16 of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 1000 event. The unseeded Argentine
took just one hour and thirteen minutes of play to dump the 10th seed Simon from the competition in an assertive fashion and advance to the next stage of the last Masters Series tournament of the running season.
Monaco finally broke the three-match winning streak of Simon against him in singles encounters, improving his head-to-head record to 2-3. He took hold of the momentum in the opening set and raced through the second set with the
utmost ease to finish the contest to the dismay of the local crowd. Simon appeared completely out of form in the contest and conceded a number of unforced errors to let his opponent let the better of him.
“I would have liked the season to keep going a bit longer,” said the dejected Frenchman after ending his voyage in the Paris Masters. “Ending this season on a score of 6-love like last year is not really what I wanted. I didn't
want that kind of a match, either. I didn't play well. He was extremely good. I'm sure he made very few unforced errors. I was never able to find my rhythm.”
26-year-old Simon delivered just 48 per cent of his serve on target and secured 15 first serve points, with his opponent clinching 25 out of his 27 points in the matchup. Monaco converted four of his nine break opportunities in
the matchup, whereas the 10th seed utterly failed to craft a single break opportunity in the entire matchup to finish the matchup on the losing side in the end.
Monaco will meet the world number nine, Mardy Fish of the United States, in the third round to fight for a place in the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters. Fish stood tall against the unseeded German competitor, Florian Mayer,
6-1, 6-2, in the second round on Wednesday evening to make it to the round of 16.
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