Gilles Simon, after playing his second semi-final of the day, joked about how he would have liked compatriot Benoit Paire instead of Kevin Anderson to win the other last four match and how he is so bad at doubles, this is only the third time he has won more than two matches in a row.
“Kevin is not great news for me, I must say I was cheering for Ben because he is my friend and because I thought I had more chance to win against him,” he said laughing after his doubles win at the Tata Open Maharashtra on Friday.
The Frenchman, who has knocked off the top and third seeds in his run to the final, will now face Kevin Anderson of South Africa with both looking to win their first ATP trophy since 2015. This is also the first time that they are starting their season in India.
But even in his jokes about height and Marin Cilic playing Robocop, Simon made it clear that he has a plan for the final, even though it will be a tough match. “Today we saw that Ben had a nice strategy also and that Kevin was completely losing it to turn it back in the second set. It’s going to be hard, he will be serving bombs but I have to focus on the part of my game where I am better,” he added.
If Anderson is a big-server at 6’8, Simon is a dogged retriever, making it an exciting contest. It will be a question of who falters first and whether the opponent can capitalise on whatever little space is given.
Anderson, who is the tournament leader in aces (60), service games won and break points saved, isn’t taking the wily Simon lightly either. On paper, it is the world No 89 who is taking on the No 14 in the final. But Simon has a career-best ranking of world No 6 and has taken to the Balewadi Stadium courts in Pune like a fish to water.
“It’s only an upset on paper, but nobody is going to be too surprised [to see Simon in the final]. He is one of the most consistent players in the last decade. The last season was a challenge for him, but he has been in the top 10 and beaten all the top players in the world.
It’s going to be a tough match, I go in to the match having beaten him all three times that we have played. But two of those were very close three-set matches, at least I know what to expect. He is a great fighter, a great retriever so it comes down to me having to go out there and enforce my game as much as possible.” the South African said after his semi-final in Pune.
The 33-year-old Simon did have a difficult season in 2017, slipping in the ATP rankings from being 25th in January to a year-end ranking of 89. But he sounded the warning even before the tournament began, saying “There are a lot of good players participating here but I am confident that if I perform up to my full potential, I can beat the best in the world.”
Road to the final
The counterpunching player has hit his way through every opponent on the way to the singles and doubles final (with Pierre-Hugues Herbert) in Pune, alternating between blitz attack and solid defence, with only his semi against Cilic going to three sets. Incidentally, he has a positive head-to-head record against both the seeds he conquered.
In his first-round match, he blasted his way past Tennys Sandgren 6-4, 6-1 to win his first season-opening match in five years. Next, he stunned the defending champion and world No 20 Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 7-6(5) as the Spaniard was caught unawares. In the quarter-final against qualifier Ricardo Ojeda Lara, who stunned sixth seed Jiri Vesely, he notched an easy 6-2, 6-3 win and then showed his resilience in the semis, fighting from a “breadstick” set down to knock the top seed out.
Anderson, on the hand, has had a more stuttering run to the summit clash, with two of his three matches going into deciders, with the third being a retirement. After a first-round bye, he played Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro, who had injured his leg in the previous match, Yet, the first set went into a tiebreak before the Brazilian retired.
In the second match, seventh seeded Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin pushed the US Open finalist in the first set, winning it 7-6(3) before Anderson checked in to take the next two. Against the crafty Paire, the first two sets were tiebreaks with flashy shots and no quarters given. But the decider saw the Frenchman implode and Anderson took it 6-1.
But the tall South African, who needed a small medical timeout for his elbow in the semifinal, insists that these gruelling matches are an opportunity, not an impediment.
“I think it’s good on a couple of fronts. It’s important to get through those matches, I worked hard in December on my body to get healthy so that’s good going into the final. On a secondary note, I think it’s very good heading to Australia, having a few longer matches, we have to play three out of five days. Obviously, I would have liked to win easier but I think its great preparation,” he said.
In the final, Simon might not fizzle in the decider like the others, he has a 12-6 record in ATP World Tour singles finals. The 33-year-old is currently travelling alone – a decision he took after his poor 2017 – and will have to use every last bit of guile and energy he has at his disposal against the big-serving South African.
But the 31-year-old Anderson, under the guidance of new coach Brad Stine, says he now has the belief to back his game on court. At 3-10 in career finals, he is the kind of player who needs a mental push as well, to do his best. He has the weapons for sure, and if he can power through like he did in the deciding sets in his last two matches, the world No 14 could get his hands on the trophy.
In the doubles final, the French pair of Simon and Herbert will take on second seeded Dutch pair of Matwe Middelkoop and Robin Haase.