Gilles Simon overcomes Jarkko Nieminen in the second round – BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy 2013
Defending champion, Gilles Simon, had a shaky start to his title defence at BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy but managed to clear the second round. The second seeded French defeated the Finn veteran, Jarkko Nieminen, in a three-set thriller,
4-6, 6-4, 6-4, and reached the quarter-final round of the ATP World Tour 250 event in Bucharest, Romania.
A tough battle was anticipated between these two crafty players, as they had won two matches apiece against each other in the past. Simon first defeated the Finn in Marseille, France in 2006 and Nieminen registered two back-to-back
victories against him in 2006 and 2010. The last encounter between these two took place in Hamburg, Germany, in 2011 which the Frenchman won in three gruelling sets. His Thursday’s victory gave him a 3-2 lead in the FedEx Head-to-Head series against Nieminen.
He spent two hours and 39 minutes before his efforts proved fruitful in the end.
"It’s always great to be back in Bucharest," said Simon after registering his 17th victory of the 2013 ATP season. "I won so many matches on this centre court, so whenever I step on it I have a lot of confidence. Even
if I feel tired before coming here, I don't want to miss this event because I always feel great here. I’m happy with the way I played the last game today.”
The opening set of the match witnessed two break points from Nieminen to give him an early lead. Simon retaliated with a serve break later in the set but couldn’t recover fully from the early damage done by the Finn. Nieminen closed
out the opener at 6-4 to get the upper hand in the match.
Simon played more aggressively in the following set and delivered 64 per cent of his first serve on target. He had four break opportunities but only one conversion proved sufficient for him to wrap up the second set at 6-4.
More intense battle was seen in the decisive set, with Nieminen breaking the French serve twice. However, Simon bettered him with three cracking breaks of serve to close out the match at 6-4. The defending champion will face Daniel
Brands of Germany in the quarter-finals.
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