Gilles Simon comes back from two sets down then gets through a wild fifth to defeat Lleyton Hewitt in the Roland Garros first round on Sunday. Simon improves to 4-0 lifetime against Hewitt.
Gilles Simon has never fared particularly well at the French Open, but he had never lost to Lleyton Hewitt heading into Sunday’s first-round clash. In a way, both trends continued.
Simon needed five sets over three hours and 19 minutes to get past Hewitt 3-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-5. After his comeback from two sets down, the Frenchman squandered all of a 5-0 lead in the decider before holding serve in the 11th game of the set and breaking Hewitt at 6-5 to finally clinch victory.
This was not expected to be so competitive. The 32-year-old Australian had not won a match on clay this season and he had been 0-3 lifetime against Simon with not a single set to his credit and having made none of the sets closer than 6-3.
Hewitt, though, wrote a a much different script at the start of Sunday’s showdown. The former world No. 1 converted all six of his break-point opportunities in the first two sets, three in each. He closed out the opener on serve at 5-3 then broke Simon at 5-1 in the second for a commanding lead. Hewitt even regained momentum in the third when he recovered from a break deficit to get back on serve at 3-3.
Simon, however, at last turned the tide with a break for 4-3. Roland Garros’ No. 15 seed held his next two service games to force a fourth set. In the latter stages of his career, Hewitt has been struggling in long matches and more of the same continued on Court Suzanne Lenglen. The world No. 82 won only 12 total points in the fourth, earning zero break chances and saving none of the break points he faced.
To the delight of the French fans, Simon appeared to be off to the races when he surged to a 5-0 advantage in the fifth. Suddenly, however, the crowd favorite cracked. Hewitt roared back to level the score, saving two match points on serve at 2-5 in the process. With his collapse almost complete, Simon steadied himself just in time to reach the finish line. A convincing hold at 5-5 led to a routine break in the final game, which ended when Hewitt netted a forehand after an extended baseline rally.
Watch Simon’s celebration, including a shot of “vamos!”:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9ndzZ6_ZYU]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJMOocxuELY]
“It’s disappointing, Hewitt assured, “but I obviously didn’t come here with massive expectations. He’s a quality player as well. Would have been nice to get win, and then the draw opens up a little bit as well when you take a seed spot. So that’s frustrating. I was happy for the most part with my ball striking, though.”
“I simply got back into the match by playing better,” Simon said. “Unfortunately, at the end he played one more time great tennis. It’s never easy to finish when you see the guy coming back 5-1, 5-2, 5-3 after a few match points. So I’m just happy that I managed to win this one.”
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