Family, tennis friends (Gasquet, Tsonga, Monfils), officials… Everything seemed to come together on Monday evening to celebrate the end of Gilles Simon’s career against Andy Murray at the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000. But the retirement pot will wait a bit: the 37-year-old Frenchman, led 4-6, 3-5, managed to reverse a very compromised situation to bring the 35-year-old Briton to his senses (4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in 2h50).
“It could be the last game, but there will be another one, so I can be well, well, tense for two more days”, launched “Gillou”, after his third victory in 19 oppositions against the former world number 1, now 48th.
“We start the match and it’s 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, there is no space. I say to myself “he breaks my balls”… I say to myself “he ruined my career for me and he will ruin it for me until the end”…”, admitted the ex-number 6 at ATP, today 188th today. But the legendary stubbornness of the Niçois, combined with the self-destruction mode triggered by Murray, author of gross faults, finally allowed Simon to prolong the pleasure a little, in front of the 13,500 spectators of an almost full Arena.
mixed feelings
“Jo and Gaël came just for that, thinking it would be the last match… well no, there will be another! I will do my best to try to take advantage of this atmosphere at least once more, maybe more if it works, ”said the Frenchman after the fight.
A little over an hour after the match, the reading of the meeting was more peaceful. “It would have been nice if it had stopped tonight, because I still have this worry [de ne pas être à la hauteur du prochain match] “, he explained. “There are a lot of conflicting feelings: I want to win, but part of me can’t wait to stop. Because it is very hard,” he added.
His next opponent, Wednesday, will be the American Taylor Fritz (11th) who is trying in Paris to win a place for the Turin Masters (November 13-20).