As an injury-hit France undergo their Davis Cup semi-final against Croatia, one name has been notably absent. Last year Gilles Simon gave Andy Murray quite a scare in the Great Britain versus France quarter-final fixture. Since then he has featured just once for France and has all but disappeared from the Davis Cup picture.
With both Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils being forced to withdraw with knee injuries, the door was slightly open for the former world #6. Instead though, France captain Yannick Noah opted for wiley veteran Richard Gasquet and tenacious youngster Lucas Pouille. The decision not to include Simon is not surprising though, given his downturn in form this year.
After beginning the year at #15 in the world the Frenchman has fallen away. The season may still have a couple of months left, but it looks as though Gilles Simon may fail to make an ATP final. Considering he has made one every year since 2006 that would be a huge personal disappointment.
Simon’s issues run deeper than simply not making an ATP final. Only twice this year has the Frenchman managed to string three consecutive wins together. Both of those came in the first quarter of the year – at the Australian Open and Miami Masters. Since Miami, Simon has won back-to-back matches just four times in thirteen tournaments. For a player who has consistently been in the top twenty these are frustrating statistics.
The Quiet Decline of Gilles Simon
Simon’s style is focused around consistency and craftiness. His counterpuncher nature has made him a dependable player who rarely suffers surprising losses to lower-ranked players. This year has been a different story. In the build up to the US Open, Simon suffered a 7-6 6-1 defeat to Diego Schwartzman in his opening match, a player shorter and less successful than himself.
Perhaps his worst defeat of the year came in Gstaad where he was humiliated by Thiago Monteiro 6-2 6-4. Winning just six games against a player ranked outside the top one hundred will have been a psychological blow. Clay may be the Brazilian’s favourite surface but that does not excuse such a torrid result.
From a technical perspective there has been little noticeable change. Simon’s counterpuncher style focuses on maximising speed, agility and variation. At only 31 you would not assume that any of these will have been severly hampered. David Ferrer is a player built in a similar mould and is only just starting to fall off the plateau aged 34.
What may have had a small but significant impact is the ongoing right knee injury the Frenchman suffered back in 2009 and 2010. Whilst there has been no obvious sign of reoccurrence, an injury of this nature is bound to have long-lasting effects. Perhaps the knee injury is now having a permanent effect on his movement which is hampering his speed and consequentially his results.
Pushing Novak Djokovic to the Edge
What is particularly perplexing is that there were no signs of this decline at the start of the year. Back in Melbourne, Gilles Simon wrestled 100 unforced errors out of Novak Djokovic in a bizarre encounter. It was by no means one for the purists given the high error count. Even though he lost, that match suggested that Simon was in decent form at the start of the year.
The 31 year old still has 465 points to defend this year. Given that the Frenchman is only 39th in the ATP Race to London and has barely earned double that all year, it is certainly unlikely that he will defend all of those points. An unseeded Gilles Simon at the Australian Open is becoming a very real possibility and it will be only the second time since the 2011 French Open that this is the case. This year is also the first that he has failed to beat a top ten player since 2005.
Looking forward, it’s tough to see Simon returning to the top #20 let alone the top #10. With a new wave of powerful youngsters emerging on tour it is hard to see how Simon, given his age and style, can remain ahead of them. Already this year he has lost to Alexander Zverev twice, Kyle Edmund once and Grigor Dimitrov three times.
There is no doubt that Gilles Simon is a player who has maximised his career given his clear limitations. It now looks as if those limitations are starting to catch up with him. He is falling behind those around him and we will probably not see him seeded at a Grand Slam again.
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