Gilles Simon plonks Santiago Giraldo in the quarter-final – Brisbane International 2012
Colombian competitor, Santiago Giraldo’s successful run in the Brisbane International was brought to an end in the quarter-final by the world number 12, Gilles Simon. He took revenge of the last year’s first round loss and marched
into the last four with a cumulative score of 7-6(2), 6-4. The French second seed secured the semi-final berth after battling for an hour and 48 minutes, clinching the second head-to-head win against Giraldo.
Simon lost the only battle against Giraldo in March 2010 during Sunrise Challenger; apart from that, he has won twice at Brisbane against the Colombian and looks to pile up some more victories in the near future. World number 55,
Giraldo tried his best to flabbergast everyone with yet another triumph to his name in the tournament but his luck was out.
Both players started the proceedings in traditional manner and held their serves in the first two games. First break to the second seed came in the third game and was coupled with a successful serve game in the next to double the
lead. Giraldo continued to hunt for that vital break to bring the score level and he found that in the eighth game when he played a fantastic jaw-dropping winner down the line.
No more drama was seen afterwards and scoreboard kept ticking over until it reached the tie breaker stage at 6-6. With years’ of experience at his back, Simon eased himself to the first set win by bagging the crucial tie break
in style. A decent fight was put forth by the inferior ranked contender but he failed to click at the last pivotal stage of the set.
Second set was pretty monotonous at the start; both participants continued to hang on to their serves. At the score of 3-3, the second seed French won a crucial break but it was not the turning point as his opponent replied in
the next game with a successful break and levelled the score at 4-4. Everyone thought that it would again go down to the wire but the second seed broke once again in the ninth game and held his serve in the next to bag the second set, placing a berth in the
semi-finals.
Simon is expected to make it to the finals at least considering his seeded entrance and he looks to match the expectations as he plan to pound the third seed Ukrainian, Alexandr Dolgopolov, in the semis.
Tags: