Gilles Simon makes the pleasure last. While playing the last tournament of his career at Paris-Bercy, the Niçois brought down Andy Murray in the first round, Monday October 31, in three sets (4-6, 7-5, 6-3) and 2 hours and 52 minutes of play. Everything on the center court of the Accor Arena had however been prepared to celebrate the end of “Gillou’s” career. The ceremony had been organized for this evening, the former teammates, the “new Musketeers” (Richard Gasquet, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet), all present in the stands.
Gilou offers himself one more match in Paris
Not done yet! #RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/9JMDFTkIYj
— ROLEX PARIS MASTERS (@RolexPMasters) October 31, 2022
Simon was finally able to thwart the odds and not against just anyone. Since the start of his career, the 37-year-old from Nice has had a pet peeve on the courts: Andy Murray. In eighteen confrontations, the latter had won sixteen times. Simon therefore waited for his very last tournament to beat the Scot for only the third time. “It’s nice because Andy ruined my career. It’s the one that beat me the most. Sixteen defeats is a lot, almost an entire season. I thought he was going to ruin my end of career but I beat him“, reacted Simon with a smile at the microphone ofEurosport after the game.
To defeat Murray, Simon released one of the bursts of pride of which he has the secret. The former world number 6 – his best ranking in 2009 – well deserved the “Gillou” from the stands throughout the meeting. After the first set won by Murray, and at 5-3 for the Scot in the second set, everything suggested that Simon was slowly heading towards the twilight of his career, facing the former world number 1.
“I no longer felt able to play. But I felt that he was tense and less well and I managed to take this chance. It’s a small miracle“, underlined Simon. The reaction of the latter was indeed possible thanks to the physical hollow of a lost Murray at the end of the second set and in the third set.
Invited by the organizers for this tournament, Gilles Simon finally overturned the match to win the last two sets and win on his first match point. Carried by the public, the Frenchman has therefore postponed the date of the end of his twenty-year-long career. “It would have been a great last game“, assured Simon, already turned to the next round on Wednesday, with a meeting which awaits him against the American Taylor Fritz, seeded number 9 of the Parisian tournament.
A match that promises to be much more complicated than against Murray. “You will have to be on your feet right away. I’m worried every game, about my level and not delivering what I want to deliver for my last game“, explained Simon before concluding: “I will try to do my best to keep it going.“