Pune: On a chilly Saturday evening, the Balewadi Stadium was filling up fast with a queue of people waiting at the entrance for the Maharashtra Open final. The online tickets were sold out, the stands were filling up, with people streaming in at every changeover. And about 70% of the crowd seemed to back one man, the Frenchman that Pune seemed to have adopted over the last week as their own. There were banners of the France flag, his name spelt out in the colours of the flag amid cries of allez, as the capacity crowd cheered the world No 89.

And man of the moment, Gilles Simon, put up a show to remember, beating second seed Kevin Anderson 7-6(4), 6-2 in an hour and 37 minutes to lift the inaugural Tata Open Maharashtra. This was his third win over a seeded player this week – third seed Roberto Bautista Agut, top seed and world number six Marin Cilic were the other two – and no less impressive in the way he kept up the attack.

A match where both slugged it out in the first set, was defined by the early break of set that Simon got in the sixth game of the second set. But the final was far from one-sided at first, as Anderson, who had a 3-0 record against Simon, blasted his booming serve. The only thing that separated the two in the final was Simon’s retrieving and the 31-year-old’s own unforced errors, especially after extended rallies.

At the start of the tournament, nobody would have given the player who fell to world No 89 much of a chance in a field that had a Grand Slam champion, a Grand Slam finalist, and five players in the top 50. However, the 33-year-old is a veteran on the ATP circuit with a career-high ranking of 6 and showed that he still had the resilience to be on the top. By the end of it, he was the last man standing by virtue of the sheer doggedness of his returning, a quality that was singled out by Cilic who lost to him in the semi-finals on Friday.

It is the first title for Simon, since his win at Marseille in February 2015.

Grit and glory

The match started in typical Anderson fashion – an ace. The two were trading punches in the first few games but the first real opportunity came in the fourth game when Anderson got three breakpoints. What followed was perhaps among the best rallies of the match – the game went to deuce five times but the gritty Simon held his serve. He then took the next service game to deuce but Anderson held.

The first break of the match finally came in the seventh game as Simon converted the second break point of the game with some brilliant counter-punching from beyond the baseline. The battle of the flat backhands was in full flow. Anderson, serving to stay in the set, managed a tough hold in the next and went on to break Simon on errors when he served for the first set to put the set back on serve.

As has been the trend with Anderson in Pune, the set went to a tiebreaker and the second seed took an early 3-1 lead. But another flat backhand rally and another Anderson unforced error later, it was level on 3-3. From then on, barring a massive ace, it was Simon all the way in the tiebreak as he punched a winner past a tired-looking Anderson on set point. The crowd let out and almighty roar as the Frenchman sealed the set in just over an hour.

The second set was a lot more straightforward as Anderson tried to attack but failed to get past. In only the second game, Simon got three breakpoints but the tall South African served his way out of the hole with two powerful aces.

At 3-2, just when the pace of the match seemed to drop down, Simon got the match-defining break as Anderson committed more unforced errors on the Frenchman’s returns. He lost only three points in his four service games in the second set while Anderson continued to struggle with his errors.

That early break was all the 33-year-old needed. Serving to stay in the set, Anderson gave away two championship points. A superb rally saved one, but Simon, egged on by a raucous crowd, converted the second when Anderson hit a backhand wide.

It was a brilliant performance from the Frenchman, who took the call to travel alone since the end of last season. After a negative win-loss ratio and steep drop in performance in 2017, he has started 2018 on the right note, after deciding to play his first tournament in India.

“I did not have a great season last year but I am very happy and excited to have started the season by winning the title here in India. This is my first appearance here in India and I am delighted to have won in front of a great crowd which has always supported me from the first day,” Simon said.

Simon was awarded a prize money of $89,435 and has won 250 ATP Ranking Points for winning the Singles competition while Anderson was awarded a cheque of $47,105, winning 150 ATP Ranking Points.