Wk.41- The Little Frenchman That Could

Hey Y'all. Galileo here.

There are some books we all read as kids. One of these books was called "The Little Engine That Could" and it was written in the 1930's. The French tennis train has broken down. And all the various Frenchmen -- or trains -- are too busy or otherwise distracted to deal with it. But not Gilles Simon. Simon is the little train that could. He is that train that will push the other broken train over that mountain. He is the little train, the overlooked train, the forgotten train. He is the train that is left to its own devices, the train that may sometimes not work perfectly, the train which is left in the shadows of his more successful compatriots. I myself have written him off before. He is the little Frenchman that could.

Simon just never stops pushing. He is one of the world's best at pushing, at making opponents play. He is one of the best in the business at finding Federer's backhand. He has made a career out of pushing people to the limit and beyond. He wins by just never ever giving in and forcing his opponents to outhit him. He has become an expert in waiting for the best time to counterpunch. He has burned the very best using patience and counter punching.

Simon has always been the forgotten child of France, never having made a slam semi-final let alone a final, unlike his more well-known brethren Gasquet and Tsonga. They have stunned us with big shots, big wins and even bigger collapses. Tsonga ,in particular, has been a world beater with a forehand many would come to fear. Gasquet is perhaps the most incredible player to watch. You will not find more drama, more highs and lows and more entertainment from any other player across a season from tournament to tournament, match to match, set to set, game to game and even point to point.

And Simon does not win or excite as much as those two do. He does not inspire famous Davis Cup wins and he does not make people gasp. He makes people fall asleep. My namesake was inspired by the metronomic quality in clocks; he would have loved Simon. He has the ability to consistently put the ball in the same place umpteen times in a row before his opponent goes for a big shot and misses or goes for a big shot which Simon can counterpunch for a winner. If Simon is feeling adventurous he may roll the ball to a completely different area of the court. It really throws his opponent off. If that doesn't work, he chooses a new spot and repeats the steps.

No, he does not have Gasquet's backhand nor Tsonga's forehand. He does not even have Llodra's touch or Benneteau's serve. But they lack his consistency and patience.

Federer had too much variety in the Shanghai final, but then again we expected that. No player, not anymore, quite has the variety Federer has. Simon seriously struggled with that variety, with all the different weapons Federer had.

I have not many updates left to give you from the regular season and so we should get on it...



*WEEK 41 CHAMPIONS*
SHANGHAI, CHINA
S: Roger Federer def. Gilles Simon 7-6(6)/7-6(2)
D: Bryan/Bryan d. Benneteau/Roger-Vasselin


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: (FEDERER, SUI)
...Here we are again. Could it be anyone else? Federer is headed for second place on the all-time title winners list. Federer will not be caught by Nadal with regards to titles nor finals. He will also not be caught by Nadal with regards to match wins. With 984 wins, Federer is going to surpass 1000 wins next year and he will probably do it at the Australian Open. He is going to out-do Lendl's 1071 match wins as well. Connors has well over 1200 but who says the Fed won't overhaul that record, as well. But enough of Federer's many, many achievements. When Fed eventually retires, I will do a week of tributes or something equally fitting. This week Fed should never have won. He saved five match points against Mayer , becoming one of the very few men to have won a Masters title after being down match point. The Argentine could not convert on any of them but he was half an inch away when he hit the very top of the tape on one of those match points. Federer came through that 7-5, 3-6 , 7-6 [7] and he had a seed up next. Fourteenth seed Agut should have posed more of a challenge, but Federer decided to simply be too good. Perhaps he was double parked. They used to say Fraulein Forehand played as if she was double parked. Benny was the next man up and they played a match of incredible quality which Federer won eventually 7-6, 6-0. Fed can keep up that level all day but Benny struggles to sustain it. Next we had a candidate for straight sets match of the year in which Federer played too much offense for the man of defense to handle. Federer was utterly dominant in the forecourt and volleyed as well as he ever has. He won 6-4, 6-4. It included a 47-second game where Djokovic got the edge of his racket on just one of Federer's serve. That is how you consolidate. He played four quality matches to get into the final. He played four tough opponents and then beat Simon 7-6, 7-6 despite not playing his absolute best. It was a master class of a tournament from the Fed.
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RISER: FERRER, ESP
...In 2007-2008 Ferrer was one of the world's best players, but he fell out of thee top ten and he fell out of form. It looked like he was a flash in the pan, like he was finished. He came back in 2010-2011 and had two very strong seasons. He made the WTF those two years. He looked elite. He rose to Spanish number one and world number three. He made a final of a slam in 2013 and he has made so many slam semi-finals. He has won a Masters and he has proven himself on the big stage. But then, alas and alack, he got old and he lost form. He no longer looked like Ferrer. He looked like he had lost everything, everything he had worked so hard for. But here he has had some redemption. Here he has proved he still has it. He got past an on fire Klizan without crumbling and then looked like a world beater in the final two sets of his match against Murray. He looked very strong indeed. Murray gave him a beating for the first hour but after that Ferrer turned it on and showed us why he is ranked higher than Murray even now. Ferrer was competitive in his loss to Djokovic. It looked less close than it was in reality. It looked like a thrash, but Ferrer played well in his 6-4, 6-2 loss to the world number one.
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SURPRISE: SIMON, FRA
...Simon arrived on the scene in 2008-2009 and has had some big wins. Injury sidelined him for a while but he soon found his way back. He is the sort of player you can never discount. The 29-year old has lost only five finals and won more than double that. With 68.75% , Simon's win percentage is fourth best among active players. Simon nearly lost in the first round but managed to handle Garcia-Lopez with ease in the end. He won 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 to make the second round. He should have lost to Wawrinka, but in the clash of the Swiss residents Simon prevailed, though barely. He won 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 and claimed a huge upset. He dismissed Jaziri for the loss of only five games. Berdych is not used to getting bageled, but Simon laid one down on him. It just sort of fell away. Simon was just too consistent, just too unerring for Lopez in the semi-finals and was never troubled in his 6-2, 7-6 [1] victory. Simon has risen eleven places up to eighteenth in the rankings. If he can do well in one of those 500 tournaments and then finish strongly in Paris, a place the French usually thrive in, he will finish in the top sixteen you would think. Simon has already all but secured the French number two position at year.s end.
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FRESH FACE: QUERREY, USA
...He has lost a bit of from this year and he has looked not great for large portions of the season. If you have ever heard of Tiburon, California then you will be delighted to know that they have a challenger in their town of just 9000 inhabitants. Querrey, ranked 52, did what he was supposed to do and cruised through this tournament without dropping a set. Not once was he challenged and he capped it off by dismissing John Millman 6-4, 6-2 in the final. Querrey will gain confidence from this. Going into the challegers is the right call from Querrey.
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UPSET: LOPEZ, ESP
...He gets my vote for beating Nadal in straight sets. It's very hard to beat a number two in straight sets and to do it so comfortably is impressive. Yes, Rafa was injured but, really, by now Nadal has had so many injuries they seem to affect him less.


1. SHANGHAI QF – Nishikori d. Raonic
...7-6/4-6/6-0. Simon was a wall. Berdych could do nothing. The absolute collapse in the final set was very worrying though; Berdych needs to avoid those in the future. Simon didn't blow him off the court but he made Berdych think and Berdych doesn't usually have to think.
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2. SHANGHAI 3rd Rd. - FERRER d. MURRAY
...2-6/6-1/6-2. After being blown away in the first set, Ferrer came back and put Murray to the sword. They are both in the Austrian capital this week but this three-set decision has all but ended Murray's chances of making the finals. His fate is no longer in his hands. He does not deserve to make the tour finals and it does not look as if he will. Ferrer's inside out forehand was particularly effective here.
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3. SHANGHAI 1st Rd. – Lopez d. Nadal
...6-3/7-6 Nadal is off. If I were Nadal then I would be starting to look at retirement as a serious option. By all means win a tenth French Open, but maybe stop there. Every year at the French he looks a little less dominant or at least he has since 2010. Anyway, Lopez turned is on here and played the perfect match to come through.
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*Moscow, Russia*
=SF=
Raonic [1] d. [3] Gulbis
Cilic[2] d. [7] Youzhny
=FINAL=
Cilic [2] d. [1] Raonic

*Stockholm, Sweden*
=SF=
Berdych [1] d. [5] Mayer
Dimitrov[2] d. Tomic
=FINAL=
Berdych [1] d. [2] Dimitrov

*Vienna, Austria*
=SF=
Ferrer [1] d. [8] Thiem
Murray [2] d. [3] Lopez
=FINAL=
Murray [2] d. [1] Ferrer


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