Gilles Simon knocks out Janko Tipsarevic to reach the final – Thailand Open 2012
Fourth seed, Gilles Simon of France, stunned the top seeded player from Serbia, Janko Tipsarevic, in the semi-finals of the Thailand Open in Bangkok on Saturday.
The Frenchman is now just one victory away from grabbing his second Thailand Open crown. The right-hander also captured this ATP World Tour 250 hard court event at the Impact Arena in 2009.
Simon made a fine start, as he struck in the very first game of the contest and won his subsequent serve to gain a 2-0 lead. The French contestant did not drop his advantage till the end, bagging it 6-4.
The 27-year-old pounded three aces and grabbed 13 of the 17 first delivery points. The right-hander also gave a decent performance on the second serves and returns, claiming eight of the 14 and 10 of the 17 points on them respectively.
The 18th ranked player put away the only break threat he faced and availed one of the two chances he created.
Second set went steadily at the start, as none of the two players managed to claim a break of serve in the first eight games, levelling the proceedings at 4-4. Simon hit a blow to the Serbian player in the ninth and capitalised
on it to win 6-4.
The Frenchman matched his first set’s performance of three aces and survived six from Tipsarevic. The 6ft tall put up a superb show on his serves, banging in 71 percent of the first deliveries and securing 14 of the 15 points on
them. The Nice, France born did not provide any break chance to the top seed and amazingly saved seven of the eight he faced.
Simon was jubilant after routing the highest ranked player of this event. The French contender stated after the match, "I played very good today. I don't think I could do better. Tipsarevic has been playing amazing tennis the past
two seasons and he's hard to defeat. For me this was almost the perfect match."
He added, "It's great to be in a final that means another tough match. But it also means I've been successful this week. It's nice to be playing such good tennis again, I never know when I'm going to be feeling fit so I have to
take advantage. With my body, it's not always easy. I can't always count on being healthy."
Simon will take on his second seeded compatriot, Richard Gasquet, in the final.
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