Gilles Simon cruises past James Duckworth into the final eight – Brisbane International 2012
First encounter between, second seed Gilles Simon of France and Aussie wildcard entrant, James Duckworth, saw the visitor clinching the victory in straight sets 6-3, 7-5, in the second round of Brisbane International tournament
contested on hard courts on Wednesday. 27-years-old second seed now moves into the last eight and inches closer to the first championship title of the year.
Both players had enjoyed a tipsy turvy season last year and were not able to have firm footing in any tournament. The recent performance from both contestants was also dismal, as Duckworth had lost four of his last nine encounters
whereas his counterpart had just won three of last nine matches. Aussie tennis ace has the advantage of playing in familiar conditions with local support but his technique and game play was not tough enough to test the likes of Simon.
The visitor commenced the proceedings by holding on to his serve and didn’t waste a second in pounding on to his rival by breaking his serve upfront. He continued his momentum and helped himself with a lead of 3-0 in the first
set. Duckworth managed to settle down and held his serve to minimize the trail but he couldn’t find an opportunity to break his rival’s serve which was crucial to keep the set alive.
Both players kept on capitalizing on their respective serve games; Simon gave no chance to the local boy to break his serve, as could only take advantage of just one of his six allotted break opportunities, otherwise the set would
have finished way earlier.
Simon again dominated the second set proceedings in the start as he broke Duckworth’s serve and held his own to take 2-0 lead. Crowd was disappointed to see such an ordinary performance from their showman. Duckworth calmed his
nerves and broke his rival’s serve in the fourth game to level the score at two games apiece.
Cautious game play was seen from both players, as they refused to take any sort of risk in manipulating their shots to flabbergast their opponent. No unforced errors were seen for the next six games as the score moved to 5-5. A
vital serve break in the next game for the second seed French earned him a major opportunity to seal the victory and he didn’t blink an eye in doing so.
Gilles Simon plays Santiago Giraldo of Colombia in the quarter-finals of Brisbane International.
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