On The Brink Of Defeat, Ljubicic Snatches A Victory From Simon

This year has not been the greatest year for Gilles Simon. The Frenchman has struggled of late. Today, we were treated to some of the style of play that helped Simon rocket up the rankings last year.

Simon came out playing well. He was playing Ivan Ljubicic off the court. The result – the Frenchman was up a set and a break in the second set. It looked like Simon was on his way to a routine win.

Simon was in total control of the match until Ljubicic broke in game eight to level the second set to 4-4. The Croat went on to win the next two games to take the set and level the match at one set apiece.

In the third set, Simon fell completely apart. He was back to playing like he has been playing as of late. He began hanging out on the baseline and counterpunching. The unforced errors crept into his game, and it was downhill from there.

All credit to Ljubicic. The veteran was down and out. He made adjustments to turn the match around, and the Frenchman had no answers for these adjustments. In the end, the Croat was able to take the match from Simon 3-6 6-4 6-3 and advance to the quarterfinals, where he will play Novak Djokovic. Their head-to-head matchup is tied at 1-1.

(Images: AFP/Getty Images, DPPI)