Tennis: beaten by Auger-Aliassime at the Paris Masters 1000, Gilles Simon retires


Gilles Simon ended his playing career at the age of 37 on Thursday after his defeat in the round of 16 of the Paris Masters 1000 against Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime (8th) 6-1, 6-3. “Thank you Gilou,” Auger-Aliassime wrote on camera as he left the court to make way for a ceremony organized by the French Federation in honor of Simon.

The Frenchman announced in May that he would put away his racket at the end of the season, his 21st on the professional circuit, and he received an invitation to enter the main draw at Bercy. He had managed to postpone the deadline twice by winning in the first round against the former world number 1 Andy Murray and in the second against the 11th world Taylor Fritz.

Simon fought until the end

But after 2h50 of combat against the Briton and 3h06 against the American, Gilles Simon appeared in physical difficulty to resist Auger-Aliassime, one of the most fit young people (22 years old) at the moment since he is aiming at Bercy for a fourth title in four weeks after winning at Florence, Antwerp and Basel.

This Thursday, fears of a fiasco ran through the audience of the Accord Hotels Arena when the Frenchman found himself totally overwhelmed from the start of the game and complained of pain in his left thigh. But the Niçois did not want to give up and fought until the end, managing to hang his opponent in the second set when the Frenchman held his left thigh in pain in the last game of the first set. .

However, he could not prevent “FAA” from reaching the quarter-finals where he will try to win a 15th successive victory, against Frances Tiafoe (21st) who got rid of the Australian Alex de Minaur (25th) 6-3, 7-6 (7/5). “I have enormous respect for Gilles and for everything he has done for French tennis and for the tennis community in general,” said the Canadian.

The fourth most successful Frenchman of the open era

“I knew it would be a difficult game, for sure it’s a very special moment, it’s a huge moment to retire (from the circuit),” he added. Simon, born in Nice on December 27, 1984, started on the professional circuit in 2002. He reached the 6th rank in the world on January 5, 2009 and retired on a strong list of 14 ATP titles. The first in Marseille in 2007, the last in Metz in 2018. He is the fourth most successful Frenchman in the Open era (since 1968), behind Yannick Noah (23), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (18) and Richard Gasquet ( 15).

He notched his best Grand Slam result at the 2009 Australian Open and 2015 Wimbledon by advancing to the quarter-finals. With Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who retired from Roland-Garros this year, Richard Gasquet and Gaël Monfils, he constitutes the “new Musketeers”. He won with the first two in particular, the Davis Cup in 2017.





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