Gilles Simon edges past Michael Russell into the round two – US Open 2012
Seeded 16th in the draw, France’s Gilles Simon came back from two sets to one down to outlast the world number 107, Michael Russell of USA, 7-6(4), 3-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 in the first round of US Open in New York on Monday.
Simon and Russell broke each other twice in the opening set and levelled the proceedings at 6-6, taking it to a tie-breaker. The Frenchman sealed an early mini-break to take a 4-2 lead and maintained till the end to win 7-6(4).
Russell responded swiftly, as he struck in the first game of the second set and held his following serve to gain a 2-0 lead. Serving to stay in the set at 3-5, Simon made a couple of errors and lost the game and with it the set
3-6.
In the third set, Russell and Simon exchanged a couple of breaks in the opening 11 games to take the score to 6-5 in favour of the former. The American player snatched a break at that stage to capture it 7-5.
Russell was moving fast towards victory and it looked like the last Grand Slam of the event will have the first big upset after some time. The 34-year-old American hit a blow to Simon in the third game of the fourth set and consolidated
on it to take a 3-1 lead. However, the French star raised the level of his game after that, capturing five of the subsequent six to close it 6-4.
Simon became unstoppable after equalising the match score at two sets apiece, as the Frenchman dropped only one game in the decider, breaking Russell twice and making the most of the double advantage to triumph 6-1.
The French player did not have much impressive statistics on his serve, as he hit only one ace throughout the match and committed a couple of double faults. Simon also played his ground strokes too cautiously, as he banged in only
a single winner and made two unforced errors.
The world number 17 is slated to meet either Ivo Karlovic of Croatia or Chinese Taipei’s qualifier, Jimmy Wang, in the second round.
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