Gilles Simon, former world number 6 at his top level and now 188th, offered himself a very good victory against the Briton Andy Murray. In a jam-packed Paris-Bercy, the tennis player did not disappoint and regained a good level of tennis despite slumps.
The Frenchman was led 6-4, 5-3 before managing to reverse the situation and win after 2h50 min of struggle. In the second round on Wednesday, he will face the American Taylor Fritz, world number 11 and still in the race to qualify for the Masters at the end of the season.
To a point
Simon came very close to seeing an end to his twenty-year career when he found himself one game away from defeat. But, under the eyes of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, retired from Roland-Garros, Gaël Monfils, who had just become a father, and Richard Gasquet, seated side by side in the last row of the presidential stand, he equalized at a set everywhere four games later and a string of unforced errors from Murray.
And in the decisive round, with the public entering the dance and who took to believing in it with him, he kept a break made early on until the end, to lead 2 games to 1, and even took advantage of three double faults of the Scotsman to stay in the match and conclude on the face-off of his opponent.
An extra lap
“It’s very difficult, there are a lot of very contradictory feelings that come, frankly this last week, it’s been hard,” whispered Simon even on the court, very moved.
“Because playing tennis has been my life so far and it’s going to end there. And everything I do, I know I’m doing it may be for the last time, he continued. . I try to enjoy it but I have colossal stress. I want to do well, to finish well.”
Murray, now 48th, nevertheless led 16-2 in his confrontations with the Frenchman so far, only winning once in 2015, and once in 2007.
The victory is only his eleventh on the main circuit since the start of 2021.