Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Slipping and Sliding Simon

I said it a few days ago, I'll say it again - what the hell is wrong with Gilles Simon?
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I was talking about how Simon is really one of the sort of mediocre guys who somehow managed to make it big and now doesn't know what to do with himself at the top. However, with the results he's been getting at the moment, mediocre is praise too high. He's losing matches that a guy ranked maybe #80 should be losing. Not a guy ranked #7.
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In a tour which has so much depth and so much talent, how is it that one guy has managed to hang onto this spot when he's getting absolutely no results? Sure, he had some good results at the end of last year and they're pulling him up, but surely the bad has started to outweight the good by now? The Simon Slide has got to start soon - there's no way it can't. I'm just surprised at the fact he's managed to hold on so long.
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Look at who's behind him. Verdasco. Tsonga. Soderling. These are some big names - and look at the consistent results that people like Soderling have managed to put up. It's unfair currently that Simon should be ranked higher than them: if there was a match between Soderling and Simon right now, who would you bet on?
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I know this is a tired old rant, but it's true. Gilles Simon does not deserve his place in the top ten - in fact, I'd say in the top fifty right now. Until he can dust himself off and start playing tennis again, I don't think anyone is going to take him seriously.
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Today's Results
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Indianapolis Tennis Championships (Indianapolis)
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Jesse Levine def. Danai Udomchoke, 6-1 7-6 (12-10)
Benjamin Becker def. Go Soeda, 6-2 6-3
Eduardo Schwank def. Yen-hsun Lu, 4-6 6-3 6-2
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International German Open (Hamburg)
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Ivan Navarro def. Tommy Robredo, 7-5 7-6 (7-2)
Florian Mayer def. Rainer Schuettler, 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-3
Daniel Brands def. Gilles Simon, 3-6 6-4 6-3
Philipp Kohlschreiber def. Potito Starace, 6-2 4-6 6-4
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez def. Stanislas Wawrinka, 6-2 6-4
Viktor Troicki def. Teimuraz Gabashvili, 3-6 6-2 6-4
Pablo Cuevas def. Jurgen Melzer, 7-6 (7-5) 6-3
Julien Benneteau def. Juan Ignacio Chela, 6-4 1-6 6-1
Fabio Fognini def. Ivo Minar, walkover
Paul-Henri Mathieu def. Pere Riba, 6-1 2-6 7-6 (7-3)
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Banka Koper Slovenia Open (Portoroz)
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Vesna Manasieva def. Anabel Medina Garrigues, 6-3 1-6 7-5
Roberta Vinci def. Nastja Kolar, 6-2 6-0
Sara Errani def. Arantxa Rus, 6-1 6-0
Vera Dushevina def. Tathiana Garbin, 6-0 6-3
Petra Kvitova def. Galina Voskoboeva, 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-4)
Stefanie Voegele def. Anna Tatishvili, 6-1 4-6 6-3
Maria Elena Camerin def. Sesil Karantcheva, 6-1 6-4
Alberta Brianti def. Polona Hercog, 7-5 6-4
Camille Pin def. Vitalia Diatchenko, 6-3 retired
Ksenia Pervak def. Julia Goerges, 6-4 4-6 6-2
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Nurnberger Gastein Ladies (Bad Gastein)
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Alize Cornet def. Mariana Duque Marino, 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-4
Sybille Bammer def. Nathalie Vierin, 7-5 6-4
Iveta Benesova def. Alexandra Dulgheru, 7-6 (7-5) 6-3
Magdalena Rybarikova def. Mariya Koryttseva, 6-3 6-1
Anna-Lena Groenefeld def. Zuzana Ondraskova, 6-4 6-3
Nuria Llagostera Vives def. Lucie Hradecka, 6-2 6-2
Shahar Peer def. Tina Schiechtl, 6-4 6-3
Yaroslava Shvedova def. Lenka Jurikova, 6-1 6-0
Patricia Mayr def. Lourdes Dominguez Lino, 6-3 6-3
Pauline Parmentier def. Carmen Klaschka, 6-1 6-1
Barbora Zahlavova Strycova def. Sandra Zahlavova, 6-1 2-6 6-4
Tereza Hladikova def. Melani Klaffner, 6-4 2-6 6-4
Yvonne Meusburger def. Sharon Fichman, 6-4 6-3

4 comments:

evie said...

I don't get this endless "X doesn't deserve to be ranked Y" argument. These are ANNUAL rankings. Would MONTHLY rankings make people feel better? WEEKLY rankings?

These rants are crazy -- yours and many others. Simon is in the top 10 because he kicked butt for many months even though he is now playing inconsistently. (As are most in the top 20 not named Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray, btw.) Simon most definitely deserves his current ranking.

But take heart -- he'll surely drop out of the top 10 once 2008 Montreal and Cincy fall off. As it should be if he can't defend his results.

Can we have better outrages other than that such-n-such person doesn't "deserve" their ranking?

Unknown said...

Yeah, well, he's going to be dropping points left and right now that the North American hard-court swing has started. That's where he gained the most points last year.

I, for one, can't wait. He hasn't produced any really, truly decent results since Marseilles in February, or maybe even since the Australian Open. Someone else really deserves his spot in the top 10.

Unknown said...

If someone else deserves the top 10 ranking, then make the point and take it from him. Don't cry foul if they don't have enough pts to do that. When Simon was beating the World #1 twice (Fed and Rafa) last year, he was ranked outside top 10, no one cries for him for being at such low rank at that time. So if he loses to Soderling now, Soderling should be ranked higher than him? So when Simon beat Rafa or Fed last year, he deserved to rank higher than them? What nonsense. At the moment he is still top 10 in a 12-mth ranking, maybe he won't be next week, but he earned those points by playing consistent good tennis for a solid 6-7 mths (july 08 to Jan 09), and he's in top 10 for about as long, just in a delay fashion. So stop whining and deal with it.

Unknown said...

BTW, Cincy and Toronto are both off this week and he's still top 10. Maybe you should cry for the inability of others to take that spot from him. Soderling has 1 amazing slam final and no more than a 100 pts gained from any TMS or ATP500 so far this year, but you think he deserves to be in top 10. Brilliant.