Fluke?

I know this news is a day old, but I was too preoccupied ranting about the stupid place of some tournaments in the calendar yesterday to write about it - so it's getting today's post, in lieu of a better story.

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Question: why is Gilles Simon in the top ten?

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Because I have no idea. Sure, he made a Masters Series final last year, but that alone cannot be enough to propel someone up in the upper echelons, surely? I know those points still count, but let's just take a brief look at Gilles' 2009. It started all right - he made quarters in Australia, yesno? - but after that? I can't remember him stringing more than two wins together at all. He's completely lost the plot. And it's not like he's losing to big name players, because he's not getting far enough in the tournament to meet them. When was the last time Gilles Simon played someone in the top ten? I can't remember. And it's because he's got the protection of seeding, which means he meets the lower-ranked guys... and he's losing to them.

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All credit to him for doing well last year and breaking into the top ten and making it to the Masters Cup and all, but I have no idea how he's still in the top ten. You ask me to name the major weapon of Gilles Simon and I'm going to come up blank. He plays pretty unremarkable tennis, on the whole - which makes his achievements last year all the more amazing, but it also means that they could be given the unfortunate label of fluke.

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Move over, James Blake. You're no longer the sole president of the Club of Lost Souls. Gilles is coming in as co-president and until one of you manages to dig yourselves out of your respective ruts, you're just going to have to share the job.

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Today's Results

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Catella Swedish Open (Bastad)

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Juan Monaco def. Fernando Verdasco, 6-1 3-1 retired

Robin Soderling def. Nicolas Almagro, 7-5 6-3

Tommy Robredo def. Teimuraz Gabashvili, 6-4 6-0

Andreas Vinciguerra def. Jurgen Melzer, 2-6 6-4 6-3

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Mercedes Cup (Stuttgart)

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Fabio Fognini def. Nikolay Davydenko, 6-1 3-6 7-5

Victor Hanescu def. Alexandre Sidorenko, 7-6 (7-2) 6-4

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ECM Prague Open (Prague)

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Francesca Schiavone def. Kateryna Bondarenko, 6-1 6-1

Sybille Bammer def. Lucie Hradecka, 7-5 5-7 7-5

Iveta Benesova def. Zarina Diyas, 6-4 6-1

Timea Bacsinszky def. Carla Suarez Navarro, 6-4 6-4

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Internazionali Femminili di Tennis di Palermo (Palermo)

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Flavia Pennetta def. Aravane Rezai, 6-4 6-4

Anna-Lena Groenefeld def. Patty Schnyder, 4-3 retired

Sara Errani def. Yaroslava Shvedova, 6-2 7-5

Tathiana Garbin def. Olga Govortsova, 6-2 6-1