Gilles Simon devastates Sergiy Stakhovsky in 2nd round – German Tennis Championships 2011
Another page in the history of Gilles Simon was written as he played his 2ndround match of the International German Tennis Championship against his rival Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine. Playing for the third time in history, Simon made his impression stronger as he delivered a stunning performance at the Rothenbaum Tennis Court in Hamburg on Tuesday, 19thJuly 2011.
Simon, currently World No.18, cleared the first round of the Hamburg Open 2011 without playing the match. Considered equally good on all courts, the Frenchman had a powerful right hand and used his backhand as his deadliest weapon.
Rivalling the Frenchmen for the 3rd time was Sergiy Stakhovsky from Ukraine. Losing both of the time previously, Stakhovsky had changed his play towards the Frenchmen. With an aggressive play near the baseline, the Ukrainian had a clear difference in his game. However, this difference could not bring any positive change for Stakhovsky as he was no match for the fierce former World No.6, Gilles Simon.
The match kicked off at 15:07 local time with the sun still shining bright. Although the match had 9 breakpoints in 2 sets, it still did not take long for Simon to end the Ukrainian’s run.
Serving first Stakhovsky opened up the scorecard and the match 1-0. Simon followed to level the scores after game 2, 1-1. After that there came a series of 4 breakpoints in the next 6 games. As Stakhovsky served game 3, he lost. However, Simon again followed and lost as well. The scores were now level at 2-2. Simon struck a lucky shot to win another breakpoint and the rest of the games to win the set 6-2. The Frenchman secured a total of 31 points including 14 service and 17 return points. His breakpoint win percentage was 75 as he won 3 out of 4 breakpoints, all in a single set.
The second set was yet another display of three consecutive breakpoints with Stakhovsky serving first. After the first three games of the final set the scores were 2-1 in favour of the Frenchman. Simon then won the next game to lead on 3-1. With an epic display of professionalism and perfection, the world No.18 won the next 3 games including 2 breakpoints and took the set and match 6-2, 6-1.
The match concluded with Gilles Simon winning with a total of 60 points that included 22 service points and 38 returners. Out of the total 11 breakpoints, the Frenchman won an amazing 7.
With an exotic performance, the Frenchman now sits in the 3rd round to play the Finn Jarkko Nieminen for a spot in the quarterfinals.
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