Open de Moselle, Gilles Simon wins seventh ATP World Tour title
The former world number six tennis player, Gilles Simon ended a fifty-one week trophy drought on Sunday as he registered his name as the fourth French winner at the Open de Moselle tennis tournament. He won in straight sets against his German tennis foe,
Mischa Zverev in the title battle. The final match score was 6-3, 6-2.
The Nice native, who is currently ranked number 41 in the world by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) as a result of his knee injury in the first half of the year, received a boost with 250 ranking points and prize money of €72,150 on Sunday.
The twenty-five year old Gilles won his seventh ATP World Tour crown, his first since capturing the Bangkok title after getting the better of Troicki back in 2009. It is the second occasion that the French tennis player has grabbed an ATP World Tour crown
on home soil, also winning in Marseille back in 2007.
The right-handed tennis ace was accompanied this week by his family, along with his new born baby boy, Timothee, who arrived early on 2nd September when his father was playing at the United States Open tennis tournament in New York.
"I am extremely happy about this seventh title. I was not supposed to come here initially; my son was due to be born this week so logically I had not entered any championships. Because I had been playing well, also in the Davis Cup preparation, I really
wanted to try to compete and really wanted to come to Metz; I knew I could do something good,” declared Simon on Sunday.
The world number 41 further added, "My son was born on 2nd September, so I have not spent much time with him yet. As I decided to play this week I also decided to bring the family with me to Metz. I was in the unknown, I didn’t know how it was going to be,
if he would keep me up at night, and in the end, the result is perfect. Everything went very well and I am delighted to get to share this title with my family today".
A win in Metz marked a total turnaround in fortunes at the competition for Gilles, who had failed to triumph in a clash on four previous visits to the championship.
Hoping to overturn a record of 0-2 versus Zverev, Gilles broke through during the sixth game and prevented a break point in the next game before taking a lead of one set.
From 1-2 down in the following set the eighth seeded tennis ace stepped up a gear, breaking serve on a total of two occasions as he managed to win the last five games of the final match to record a comfortable victory in Metz. The match concluded in a time
period of sixty-seven minutes.
Another outstanding serving exhibition from Gilles saw him strike a total of nine aces and win eighty-four percent of points on serve.
“It hasn’t been an easy year because of the injury and I am really happy about this victory. During my time off, I strengthened my upper body to try to improve my serve, to serve stronger and for longer and this week. My serve is what kept me in the matches
even if I wasn’t playing so well,” added Simon after his title victory.
Gilles’s, previous best results this year had been a quarter final run in Eastbourne where he was defeated by Llorda and Washington where David Nalbandian got the better of the French tennis player in straight sets. As a result of this victory, Simon has
improved his match record to 15-12.
Zverev, on the other hand, who is ranked number 155 in the world by the Association of Tennis Professionals, is the lowest ranked runner up on the ATP World Tour this year. He like Bucharest finalist, Pablo Andujar, was looking to register his name as the
first qualifier to capture a trophy this season. The left-hander was playing in his first ATP World Tour singles final after not missing a single set throughout the week.
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