Gilles Simon battles past Nadal to reach his first Masters final

Gilles Simon had saved six match points in two separate matches to reach the semi-finals of the Masters Series in Madrid. In his toughest test of the week against the world number 1, Rafael Nadal, Simon was tested in every way possible in one of the most physically and mentally draining three set matches that I have seen, and came out triumphant.

The match was an exhausting three hour, 20 minute marathon which featured exceptional court coverage point after point, with both players probing each other and moving each other around superbly. Even at the end of the second set, Simon looked like he was on the verge of being beaten to the ground with the amount of energy that he was needing to expend each and every point, and he would often bend down in tiredness before composing himself again for the next point. But looks can be deceiving, and Simon continued to dig deep, and come late in the third set, Simon was still there, still willing to grind out every point and still having the courage to go for his shots.

Contrast this to their previous match that these two played in the third round of the Australian Open earlier this year, before Simon had made his big breakthrough, where they had similarly gruelling rallies in the first set and Simon expended all of his energy in an attempt to win the first set where he did hold a couple of set points, but as soon as the set had slipped out of his hands, he ran out of gas and was beaten convincingly in the next two sets.

The match started off in a routine manner with Nadal being able to boss around the rallies. Simon was relaxed in his approach to his tennis, content to play reactively and keep the ball going crosscourt the majority of the time, often going to Nadal's backhand. It felt like Nadal was able to move Simon around with little effort and without risk, much like what would you expect when Nadal plays against a lower ranked player, not in the semi-finals of a Masters Series.

There was speculation that maybe Simon was jaded from the energy he had expended during the week, as he gave himself more time to get to the ball, letting the ball come to him instead of playing it on the rise. Typically Simon has the sort of easygoing strokes that with the way he hits the ball, sometimes it feels like he can afford to swing late because of his short backswings.

Simon is one of those players who I have always thought had excellent feel and finesse on his groundstrokes, much like someone like Anna Chakvetadze on the women's side except that Simon bases his game around consistency whereas Chakvetadze is the opposite. They both have a knack of hitting shots into tricky positions time and time again, and have excellent placement on their groundstrokes. They also thrive on their opponents giving them openings or angles to work with to set up their groundstrokes, and this was again evident in this match as Simon and Nadal were consistently outmaneuvering each other in one gruelling rally after another.

After losing the first set, Simon promptly adjusted his game plan, started taking the ball earlier (which is what we were expecting right from the outset), hitting the ball a little bit harder and opening the court much better. In the last two sets of this match, Simon took his (usually) subtle game to another level executing everything that he normally does with more power and conviction.

Simon's backhand is his stronger wing, where he possesses a lot of variety and is able to redirect the ball with ease, either angled crosscourt or down-the-line, and his return of serve on that side is one of his biggest strengths. However, it was his forehand that was the revelation in this match. He usually only unloads on it selectively but it became a big weapon in this match as he flattened out on it consistently and was often able to win points hitting it hard and flat to Nadal's forehand.

Simon possesses very flat groundstrokes on both sides, and as a result, he doesn't unload on his groundstrokes often and uses it more as a surprise tactic, as a change of pace, while relying on placement other times but against a player as good defensively like Nadal, he opted for a more aggressive game plan.

It must be said that the high bounce that Nadal gets on his shots worked in Simon's favour from that standpoint, to give a bit more margin for error on Simon's flat shots, whereas I'd say against Andy Murray, he's going to be having a lot of problems when Murray slices his backhand to Simon's forehand side, or at least that will limit his offensive options.

However, what was most impressive about Simon was the courage and fighting spirit that he showed to continually battle for each and every single point, despite the constant mental and physical pressure that was placed on him throughout the match. The 15 minute game at 3-3 was the best example. Simon had set up the point perfectly pulling Nadal way out of court finally after stringing together five or so perfectly executed strokes then found himself with a floater that he would have just needed to tap into the open court, but the shot was landing dangerously close to the line and Simon didn’t know whether to leave it or not. In the last minute, Simon stuck out his racquet with two hands as to hit a swing backhand volley but failed miserably as it sailed long by quite some margin. Then immediately the next point Simon bounced back and continued to take the game to Nadal, taking the ball early and moving it around.

He doesn't get discouraged by the past. Each and every point, he is prepared to put in just as much effort, never resorting to cheap ways of winning points, even if he just ran a couple of laps around the court in the previous 25+ shot rally. In that way, he was able to deal with the pressure that usually allows Nadal to get on top of his opponents. At times, Nadal thought he had done just about everything to win the point, then Simon in that final shot when completely out of position, came up with the unlikely winner, much to Nadal's surprise.

Nadal kept plugging away and continued to try to move Simon around the court in a controlled and relentless manner. His shots, especially on the backhand side looked to be lacking in its usual pace which allowed Simon to dictate more than he'd like. Most of his shots were hit at medium pace at best on his end, and he was never really able to step up the pace when he had maintained control of the rally. Towards the closing stage of the match, a few errors started to creep in especially when he had to deal with deep shots which he ended up mishitting badly, while Simon continued his relentless consistency.

For Nadal, he might view this match as the one that got away considering that he was only able to convert a miserable 5/22 break points. As for Simon, apart from reaching his first Masters Series final, his chances of making the elite eight man field at the year end Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai have improved greatly, and he now must be considered one of the main contenders to take one of the final spots.