Since 2015, when he last won the Open 13 Provence, Gilles Simon, 35, had not reached the semi-finals. It's done again for the man who has two Marseille titles to his name. The Frenchman beat the number one seed, Daniil Medvedev, in two sets, 6/4 6/0 in 1 hour and 7 minutes.
Yet the Russian started the match well, quickly leading 3-1. But he had warned before his match: Medvedev doesn't like playing against Gilles Simon. And the world number 5 started to lose his footing. Despite a set point against him saved by a magnificent long backhand, he was then unable to do anything against the Frenchman. Medvedev was so upset that he completely lost his match and didn't play a single game. " I managed to have a very good gameGilles Simon was delighted. There were a lot of rallies, but I managed to put my tennis down and put them all in. That's how it is, sometimes there are opponents who are more successful and it's true that her style of play suits me. "
Gilles Simon had not beaten a Top 5 player since October 2016 and a victory over Stan Wawrinka, who was ranked No. 3 at the time. Thanks to his performance today, the Frenchman will now play in the semi-finals of the Open 13 Provence for the fifth time in his career. Simon has even won twice, in 2007 and 2015. Joining Marc Rosset, Thomas Enqvist and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the only players to have won three times in Marseille, would obviously not be a bad thing. But the road is still long...
