Drowning, Not Waving

Gilles Simon turned up in 2008 and was awesome for a while.

And then he went away for a bit. And despite a few moments when his head has bobbed above water, he's pretty much stayed away. Like today - losing to Mardy Fish. Gilles Simon is, for me, the epitome of meh.

When you consider the immense stable that is French tennis, with all that talent spewing out of them, you've got to wonder what happened with Gilles Simon. He is easily the least talented of the major French players, but he has overactualised on his potential time and again. He beat Federer twice. In a row. For a guy with nothing even beginning to resemble a weapon, that is pretty awesome.

But it was a long time ago. And now Gilles is drowning, not waving. And that's all I have to say about that.

Speaking of talent, David Nalbandian is back and chalking up the wins. He may have fallen apart a bit against a streaking Andy Murray last week, but he hasn't let it stop him in his stride, which I was a little concerned was going to happen. It was a tight first set against Ivan Ljubicic, but then Dave moved into the bakery and it was all over. Who would have ever thought we would ever seriously be talking about Nalbandian as a serious Slam contender once again, eight years after he made his first and only final?