Musketeer Down In Dubai

Poor Gilou continues to struggle this year. His knees have been giving him trouble for some time. Gilles Simon already pulled out of the Australian Open and Rotterdam this year.

The 25-year-old Frenchman drew Marcos Baghdatis is his opening-round match in Dubai. Baghdatis has been in good shape of late and has already played spoiler to David Ferrer and Lleyton Hewitt this year. The Cypriot today reprised his role of spoiler and upset Simon 7-6(3) 6-4.

Simon played his first match of the year last week in Marseille and lost in the first round. Today’s loss brings the Frenchman’s record to 0-2 this year. Not playing and then losing in the first rounds is killing his ranking. Thirteen months ago, he was ranked sixth in the world. Now, he is ranked eighteenth after his fell two spots today.

Singles First Round
2 Novak Djokovic (SRB) def. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 6-4 6-4
3 Andy Murray (GBR) def. Q Igor Kunitsyn (RUS) 6-2 6-3
Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) def. 8 Gilles Simon (FRA) 7-6(3) 6-4
Jurgen Melzer (AUT) def. Simone Bolelli (ITA) 6-1 7-5
Viktor Troicki (SRB) def. WC Rainer Schuettler (GER) 6-3 6-4
Q Stefan Koubek (AUT) def. Feliciano Lopez (ESP) 7-6(4) 6-4
Ivan Ljubicic (CRO) def. LL Jan Hernych (CZE) 6-2 6-7(3) 6-4

Doubles First Round
2 L. Dlouhy (CZE)/L. Paes (IND) def. M. Fyrstenberg (POL)/M. Matkowski (POL) 7-6(7) 6-3
3 M. Bhupathi (IND)/M. Mirnyi (BLR) def. WC M. Al Baloushi (UAE)/A. Magdas (KUW) 7-5 6-0

Tuesday’s Order of Play

(Image: Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships)