{"id":331,"date":"2016-09-16T12:33:23","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T16:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=331"},"modified":"2016-09-16T12:33:23","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T16:33:23","slug":"quiet-decline-gilles-simon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2016\/09\/16\/quiet-decline-gilles-simon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quiet Decline of Gilles Simon"},"content":{"rendered":"

As an injury-hit\u00a0France<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>undergo their Davis Cup<\/strong> semi-final\u00a0against Croatia<\/strong>, one name has been notably absent. Last year Gilles Simon<\/strong> gave Andy Murray<\/strong> quite\u00a0a scare in the Great Britain<\/strong> versus France quarter-final fixture. Since then he has featured just once for France and has all but disappeared from the Davis Cup picture.<\/p>\n

With both\u00a0Jo-Wilfried Tsonga<\/strong> and Gael Monfils<\/strong> being forced to withdraw with knee injuries, the door was\u00a0slightly open\u00a0for the former world #6. Instead though, France captain Yannick Noah<\/strong> opted for wiley veteran Richard Gasquet<\/strong> and tenacious youngster Lucas Pouille<\/strong><\/a>. The decision not to include Simon is not surprising though, given\u00a0his downturn in form this year.<\/p>\n

After\u00a0beginning the year at #15 in the world the Frenchman has fallen away. The season may\u00a0still have a couple of months left, but\u00a0it looks as though Gilles Simon may fail to make an ATP\u00a0final. Considering he has made\u00a0one every year since 2006 that would be a huge personal\u00a0disappointment.<\/p>\n

Simon’s issues run\u00a0deeper 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<\/strong> and Miami Masters<\/strong>. Since Miami, Simon has\u00a0won back-to-back matches just four times in thirteen tournaments. For a player who has consistently\u00a0been in the top twenty these are frustrating statistics.<\/p>\n

The Quiet Decline of Gilles Simon<\/h2>\n

Simon’s style\u00a0is\u00a0focused around\u00a0consistency and craftiness. His counterpuncher nature has made him a dependable player who rarely\u00a0suffers surprising losses to lower-ranked players. This year has been a different story. In the build up to the US Open<\/strong>, Simon suffered a 7-6 6-1 defeat to Diego Schwartzman<\/strong> in his opening match, a player shorter and less successful than himself.<\/p>\n

Perhaps his worst\u00a0defeat of the year came in Gstaad<\/strong> where he was\u00a0humiliated by Thiago Monteiro<\/strong> 6-2 6-4. Winning just six games against a player\u00a0ranked outside the top one hundred will\u00a0have\u00a0been a psychological blow.\u00a0Clay may be the Brazilian’s favourite surface but that does not excuse such a torrid result.<\/p>\n

From a technical perspective there has been\u00a0little noticeable change. Simon’s counterpuncher style\u00a0focuses on maximising\u00a0speed, agility and variation. At\u00a0only 31 you would not assume that any of these will have been severly hampered. David Ferrer<\/strong> is a player built in a similar mould and is only just starting to fall off the plateau aged 34.<\/p>\n

What may have had a small but significant impact is the\u00a0ongoing 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\u00a0bound to have long-lasting effects. Perhaps the knee injury is now having a permanent effect on his movement which is\u00a0hampering his speed and consequentially his results.<\/p>\n

Pushing Novak Djokovic to the Edge<\/h2>\n

What is particularly perplexing is that there were no signs of this decline at the start of the year. Back in Melbourne<\/strong>, Gilles Simon\u00a0wrestled\u00a0100 unforced errors out of Novak Djokovic<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

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