Gilles Simon bows out to Roberto Bautista-Agut in opening round – Monte Carlo Masters 2013
French star, Gilles Simon, suffered a shocking first round exit at the hands of Spain’s Roberto Bautista-Agut in straight sets at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters 2013 on Monday. He suffered a 3-6, 6-7(6) loss against the Spaniard in the first round at this
ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Masters 1000 event taking place in Monte Carlo, France.
Seeded 11th in this event, Simon showed dismal performance and eventually suffered the loss. As a result, the Spaniard carved out the victory for the first time in his third encounter against Simon.
"I was tired (in the first set)," the French stated in a courtside interview after exiting from the tournament. "Long rallies were killing me. In every game I was giving him a couple of free points, which hurts a lot on clay because from his side there were
not many free points. If I had won that second set, no one knows what would have happened. He would have been down after that, I believe. I'm always disappointed when I lose a match, especially when I had break points. But this time I was serving so badly
after those breaks, it was useless."
The seeded French made a thunderous entry and drew the first blood in the third game to take the initial lead. He lost his edge in the very next game but broke again, eventually going 3-2 up. However, Simon stepped off steam afterwards and eventually endured
a 3-6 loss.
In the proceeding set both contestants exchanged several breaks. The set went to a tie-breaker where Bautista-Agut prevailed and eventually clinched the set with a 7-6(6) score line.
On the whole, Simon clobbered a lower first serve share of 50 per cent as opposed to the Spaniard’s 78 per cent and availed only 18 out of 34 points on it. Furthermore, he spilled more double faults and ended the match with 70 points as compared to his rival’s
81.
The Spaniard will take on the winner of match between Germany’s Florian Mayer and the Polish wild card entrant, Benjamin Balleret.
The 16th seed, Philipp Kohlschreiber, faced a better fate later that day. He triumphed over Thomaz Bellucci in straight sets to progress.
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