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)

Marat Safin gives an interview to Russian Hello! Magazine in his Moscow apartment. It looks like someone is a photography buff (Spletnik via GOTOTENNIS)

Carlos Moya is expecting his first child with his girlfriend Carolina Cerezuela (Revista Tenis)

Ivan Lendl will play against Mats Wilander in his first exhibition match since retiring in Atlantic City. Marat Safin will play Andy Roddick in the other match (The Canadian Press)

Uncle Toni wanted Nadal to withdraw BEFORE his Aussie semifinal match with Andy Murray (Revista Tenis)

The story of Johan Brunstrom and Jean-Julien Rojer’s disqualification after they had match point in their second-round match. Moral to the story – don’t throw your racquet. Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi went on to win the South African tournament (iol)

Dmitry Tursunov pulled out of the SAP Open this week and may need a third surgery on his ankle (Sacramento Bee)

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga pulled out of Rotterdam because of a stomach muscle injury (ESPN)

Gilles Simon withdrew from Rotterdam because of a right knee injury (Tennis Connected)

Mark Philippoussis lost his first match in a Challenger event in Dallas (Open Court)

Bernard Tomic wins a Challenger event in Tasmania (Fox Sports)

(Image: Spletnik)

Gilles Simon gained notice in 2008 when the Frenchman sent Roger Federer home in the second round of Toronto. Putting in an impressive performance over the year, Simon shot up to a career-high ranking of 6. Last year was not so kind to the Frenchman where he struggled to live up to expectations.

To add to his troubles, the Frenchmen was struck with tendinitis last year -- I guess it's contagious. His knee ailments forced him to withdraw from the Australian Open this year. Hopefully, he will get better at least in time for Rotterdam because he has been missed on the tour.

The ATP put up a nice interview of Simon, so it was nice to see him to get some love.

During the first-two days of the Paris tournament, the French had lost five-straight matches. To start out the third day of play, Jeremy Chardy lost his hard-fought match against Juan Monaco. Things were looking bleak for the French fans.

Out of nowhere, French qualifier and world no. 179 David Guez upset Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets. Julien Benneteau beat Philip Petzschner in a tight match. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga then had a routine win over Albert Montanes to kick off the evening matches.

Gilles Simon had a difficult matchup with Ivan Ljubicic. The Croat has been playing really well of late and had caused a lot of trouble during the indoor circuit. He was especially troublesome for French players. In the last month, Ljubicic picked off Paul-Henri Mathieu, Julien Benneteau, Gael Monfils, Florent Serra, Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra. Plus, it did not help matters that Gillou has played victim to the Croat in all three of their previous meetings.

On paper, it looked like he might cause trouble for Simon again. Instead, the 24 year old played well for the most part of the match. The Frenchman was finally able to post his first win over the veteran able by surpassing Ljubicic 6-3 3-6 7-6(4) in a three-set thriller. Gilliou now advances to play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in an evil matchup of compatriots in third round.

After hemorrhaging matches for the first-two days, the French ended day three 4-1. Things are starting to look up for the tricolor.

Tuesday’s Results
Singles First Round
Nicolas Almagro (ESP) def. Marco Chiudinelli (SUI) 6-2 6-4
[Q] David Guez (FRA) def. Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) 6-3 6-4
Juan Monaco (ARG) def. Jeremy Chardy (FRA) 7-6(6) 7-5
Julien Benneteau (FRA) def. Philipp Petzschner (GER) 4-6 7-5 6-3
[Q] Arnaud Clement (FRA) def. Feliciano Lopez (ESP) 6-3 6-1
Singles Second Round
6 Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) def. Benjamin Becker (GER) 6-2 6-1
7 Fernando Verdasco (ESP) def. Andreas Seppi (ITA) 6-7(3) 6-4 6-4
8 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) def. Albert Montanes (ESP) 6-1 7-5
11 Gilles Simon (FRA) def. Ivan Ljubicic (CRO) 6-3 3-6 7-6(4)

Doubles First Round
B. Soares (BRA)/K. Ullyett (ZIM) def. P. Cuevas (URU)/O. Marach (AUT) 6-1 7-6(6)
M. Granollers (ESP)/T. Robredo (ESP) def. J. Del Potro (ARG)/F. Gonzalez (CHI) 7-6(2) 6-2
C. Kas (GER)/P. Kohlschreiber (GER) def. J. Monaco (ARG)/R. Nadal (ESP) 4-6 7-5 15-13 - saved 2 M.P.
J. Kerr (AUS)/T. Parrott (USA) def. M. Damm (CZE)/J. Erlich (ISR) 6-3 6-4
J. Brunstrom (SWE)/J. Rojer (AHO) def. WC S. Grosjean (FRA)/F. Santoro (FRA) 6-3 3-6 10-5

Wednesday’s Order of Play

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(Image: C. Saidi/FFT)

Feliciano Lopez knocked off sixteenth-seed David Ferrer in the second round, and today he took out ninth-seed Robin Soderling 7-6(4) 6-3. The Spaniard's semifinal appearance is his best showing in a Masters event or grand slam EVER. The current world no. 41 will play against his friend and top-seed Rafael Nadal in a lefty showdown tomorrow.

Lopez will have his work cut out for him, as Nadal has beaten him four-consecutive times. Anything is possible since Lopez did beat Nadal once in 2003. It should be a good match tomorrow.

On the other side of the draw, Novak Djokovic held off Gilles Simon 6-3 2-6 6-3 in probably the best match of the tournament -- the second best was Blake-Nadal. Nikolay Davydenko defeated Radek Stepanek 6-1 4-6 6-1. Djokovic and Davydenko will now face off in the other semifinal tomorrow. The Serb leads this matchup 2-1. It what should be another good match tomorrow.

(Image: Phillipe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images)

Novak Djokovic and Gilles Simon advanced into the Shanghai quarterfinals. Djokovic had an easy time dismissing German veteran, Rainer Schuettler 6-4 6-2. The Serb has quietly been advancing through the draw and looks, by far, the most solid of all the players in the field.

On the other side, Gilles Simon had no trouble with the usually problematic Tomas Berdych. He topped the Czech 6-3 6-4 after 90 minutes of play. Both players had been battling injuries this week, but the Frenchman was able to pull this one out.

Simon will meet Djokovic next. The second-seed looks good and leads their head-to-head 3-1. All meetings were on hard surfaces with the Serb winning the last three. It should be a good matchup tomorrow.

(Images: AP)

Eighth-seed Gilles Simon had a routine win against Viktor Troicki 6-3 6-4. Despite having tendinitis in his knees, the Frenchman soldiers on to the next round. He will meet DC Terror Twin, Tomas Berdych, who retired Marat Safin today.

The two players are even at two games apiece, but Berdych won their last two meetings. Their last meeting was earlier this year at um . . . Davis Cup. It looks like the Frenchman will have his hands full tomorrow.

(Image: AP)

• The tour is now in Asia.
• Novak Djokovic (pictured) won the Beijing Open this weekend and will overtake Andy Murray in the rankings next week.
• The musketeers did well. Gael Monfis won his first title of the year at the Open de Moselle. Not to be outdone, Gilles won his first title this year in Thailand the following week. Now this weekend, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won the Japan Open – his third title of the year. After four months off, Gasquet went to the semifinals in Metz where he lost to Monfils and the quarterfinals in Malaysia where he lost to Fernando Verdasco.
• Nikolay Davydenko was tops in Malaysia.
• Albert Montanes won the BCR Open in Romania.
• All is not bad for the Brits with Murray’s drop in the rankings. Ken Skupski and Colin Fleming won the doubles title at the Open de Moselle.
• Rafael Nadal and Kobe Bryant model new track jackets for Nike (New York Mag)
• Speaking of Nadal, he returns to the tour in Beijing after pulling out of the Thailand. The Spaniard advanced to the semifinals where he took a pretty-bad beating from the surging Croat, Marin Cilic. He lost 6-1 6-3.
• The Chinese held a farewell party for Marat Safin. I am sure there were tears (China Daily)
• Juan Monaco leads the tour in clay court wins with 28 this year. (Buenos Aires Herald)
• Spain will host Switzerland in the first round of Davis Cup next year (Latin American Herald Tribune)
• Federer pulled out of Japan Open and the Shanghai Masters due to fatigue. Murray withdraws from Shanghai (Open Court)
• There is rift in Australia (or misunderstanding) between Lleyton Hewitt and up-and-comer Bernard Tomic. I guess Tomic used the swine flu as an excuse not to hit with Hewitt. The Aussie youngster denies it, but it would be kind of hysterical if it turns out to be true (The Age)
• Simon exposed (Crazy World of Tennis)
  

(Image: Elizabeth Dalziel/AP)

City: Bucharest, Romania
Surface: Outdoor Clay
Championship Points: 250
2008 Singles Champion: Gilles Simon
2008 Doubles Champions: Nicolas Devilder and Paul-Henri Mathieu

Two-time defending champion, Gilles Simon will not defend his title this year. His knee injury has forced him out of Davis Cup and now this title.

Hometown favorite, Victor Hanescu earns top-seed honors and will be the one to beat. He will enjoy audience support and will have the incentive of not letting them down. Nicolas Almagro, Juan Monaco and Igor Andreev will be on hand to mix it up with Hanescu.

As the season winds down, it is harder to tell the clear favorites, as injuries and just burnout become the tale of the end of the season. We shall see who steps up this week in Bucharest.

Tournament Draw
Singles / Doubles

Monday’s Order of Play

(Image: Getty Images)

Juan Martin del Potro puts Tandil on the map (NYT)

Jeremy Chardy replaces Gilles Simon for Davis Cup (ESPN)

Juan Carlos Ferrero will replace Rafael Nadal for Spain’s Davis Cup semifinal (Fox Sports)

Nadal's pull out gives Israelis hope (Jerusalem Post)

Rafael Nadal admits 2009 year has been unlucky. I suspect a certain someone possesses a voodoo doll (Live Tennis)

2009 and Nadal’s injuries (USA Today)

Dmitry Tursunov will have ankle surgery. He could miss four to six months (Sacramento Bee)

Tennis is becoming more brutal (NYT)

Goran Ivanisevic will play Andrei Pavel in his last match (Croatian Times)

Rafael Nadal



















Juan Carlos Ferrero

























Gilles Simon


















David Ferrer

















Nicolas Kiefer



















Marat Safin


















Juan Monaco



















Viktor Troiki















Nicolas Lapentti


















Evgeny Korolev
















Frank Dancevic











There are some tennis polls some readers have pointed out and felt outrage at some the choices in these polls. I have received recent requests from readers over the week to do a proper topless poll. In light of the recent weather developments at the Open, I thought I would give you a treat.

I have gone to through the tennisfiend photo archives to compile a list for my fellow tennis fiends. By no means is it a comprehensive list, as I do not have photos of everyone. This poll will also be a tribute to the many of the fallen and the few who remain in the tournament that is steadily coming to a close this week despite the weather.

So, please participate in a proper poll of the ATP’s finest. Since this is a scientific poll and it may be hard for you to choose just one, we are going to do this one Chicago style -- so vote early and vote often.

Update: The formatting in IE is messed up. If viewing this post in IE , the pictured are as follows from the top to the bottom: Rafael Nadal, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Gilles, David Ferrer, Nicolas Kiefer, Marat Safin, Juan Monaco, Viktor Troiki, Nicolas Lapentti, Evgeny Korolev and Frank Dancevic.

(Images: Denise/tennisfiend)

Juan Carlos Ferrero and Gilles Simon are my two favorite players because they are both even-tempered baseliners, who play people off the court, and possess nice sets of wheels. Ferrero probably is more even-keeled than Simon because the Frenchman has a propensity, at times, to have spirited conversations with himself when things are not going well on the court.

The match looked like it would be a grinder of a match with lots of long rallies. Each player took a set and all was even in the third set until Simon called for the trainer. The Frenchman has suffered from tendinitis since the French Open, so it became a problem during this match. After the injury timeout, Ferrero was able to take the third set. Simon retired after the first game in the fourth set to give the Spaniard the victory 1-6 6-4 7-6(5) 1-0.

Ferrero advances to play the winner of the del Potro-Koellerer match later on today. His fourth-round showing ties his second-best result at the tournament in 2000. His best result was of course his 2003 final with Andy Roddick. Should his opponent be del Potro, Ferrero will have his hands full.

(Images: Denise/tennisfiend)

Jeremy Chardy and Gilles Simon took out doubles specialists Travis Parrott and Filip Polasek. After losing the first set, they rallied to win the second-set tiebreak. They then saved match point in the third-set tiebreak to surpass the American-Slovakian team 4-6 7-6(3) 12-10. The French duo will now face the Polish team of Mariusz Frystenberg and Marcin Matkowski.

(Images: Denise/tennisfiend)

Unlike the Spaniards (Verdasco lost, Lopez lost), the Frenchies had a good day today in Cincinnati. Ninth-seed Gilles Simon was able to subdue a tough charge from the Russian Igor Andreev. Simon secured a spot in the round of 16 with a 7-6(5) 6-7(6) 6-1 victory. He now awaits the winner of the Davydenko-Kunitsyn match.

In doubles, Micheal Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga topped Jurgen Melzer and Radek Stepanek 7-6(2) 6-7(6) 6-1 in their Cincinnati debut. They will now have the opportunity to meet the fifth-seeds Bruno Soares and Kevin Ullyett in the round of 16.

(Images: Denise/tennisfiend)

Another old-school favorite has advanced into the quarterfinals. Juan Carlos Ferrero took care of Gilles Simon 7-6(4) 6-3 6-2 pretty convincingly. Both players have struggled of late, but both really began playing their way into the tournament last week.

Ferrero and Simon have similar playing styles. Both are great counterpunchers who like to play their opponents off the court. The two players also have great movement on the court. A negative for both players is that they tend to hang out on the baseline when they get into trouble. Today, Ferrero was better at all of their positive attributes and did not fall back on his heels. In fact, the 29-year-old Spaniard was pretty aggressive.

At first, Simon came out and was executing his game plan better. He managed to break Ferrero and serve for the first set, but Ferrero stepped up his game to eventually break Simon back. Like in his last match, he was able to pick apart and outplay the French Musketeer. Ferrero evened the set at 5-5 and was able to take the set to a tiebreak, where he snatched the set from Simon at 7-4. With a set under his belt, the former French Open champion sailed smoothly to the finish line.

Ferrero will have the large task of playing Andy Murray. Murray is heavily favored to meet Roger Federer in the finals. The Scotsman leads their matchup 1-0. In their only meeting, Murray beat Ferrero in the semifinal of this year’s Queen's Club tournament. We shall see if Ferrero will be able to exact revenge or if he allows the odds and history steamroll him.

(Image: AP)

Gilles Simon, Radek Stepanek and Fernando Verdasco were all upset today. All faced dangerous players, but ultimately they all allowed their opponents to get the better of them and ended up being sent home.

Simon was stunned by Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-6(4) 6-3 6-2. The Frenchman had been playing better lately, but he allowed the Spaniard outplay him for a berth in the quarterfinals.

Stepanek was in the drivers seat for much of his match with Lleyton Hewitt. The Czech was up two sets, but the veteran Aussie managed to turn his fortunes around. He rallied to stun Stepanek 4-6 2-6 6-1 6-2 6-2 in just under three hours of play.

Verdasco was undone by Ivo Karlovic, who has yet to be broken in the entire tournament. The Croat's serve continued its steamroll. He rained down 35 aces on Verdasco. Karlovic ended up upsetting the Spaniard 7-6(5) 6-7(4) 6-3 7-6(9).

(Images: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images, AP, AP)

Gilles Simon had a really solid match today. It was probably the best his played in months. He had a routine win over Victor Hanescu 6-2 7-5 6-2. The last Frenchman in the draw now advances to play Juan Carlos Ferrero.

(Image: AP)

Fourth-seed Gael Monfils and seventh-seed Marat Safin have both pulled out of the tournament. Monfils suffered a wrist injury – possibly from all the diving from his previous match. With the Frenchman’s pullout, Steve Darcis received a walkover into the quarterfinals. Safin pulled out due to a back injury and was replaced by lucky loser Rik De Voest of South African.

French qualifier Nicolas Mahut took out fifth-seed Marin Cilic. Juan Carlos Ferrero posted win #401 and took out eleventh-seed Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 6-4. Ferrero will play the Belgian qualifier Xavier Malisse in a battle of the veterans. The two have surprisingly have never met in an ATP match.

On the doubles side, second-seeds Mike and Bob Bryan were taken out by British wildcards Colin Flemings and Ken Skupski (pictured). Wesley Moodie and Mikhail Youzhny took out the third-seeds Bruno Soares and Kevin Ullyett. The Croatian duo over Ivo Karlovic and Lovro Zovko upset Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa.

Andy Murray, Gilles Simon and Ivo Karlovic restored order on the singles side by getting through their second-round matched. Simon was able to get passed wildcard and Bulgarian phenom Grigor Dimitrov 7-6(7) 7-6(5). He will now face Mikhail Youzhny, who got passed Marcos Baghdatis in the round of 16. Youzhny leads their head-to-head matchup 2-0 and beat the Frenchman at Wimbledon in 2007.

(Image: EFE, Aegon Championships)

Gilles Simon appears in an interview before the Queen’s Club tournament. He is very honest about his game and some of his weaknesses. Of late, Simon has driven his fans crazy, but the Frenchman makes up for it in this charming interview. I am sure all will be forgotten until he has another frustrating loss again.

Gilles Simon managed to win today without stinking up the Suzanne Lenglen stadium. He defeated Robert Kendrick pretty convincingly 7-5 6-0 6-1 after 94 minutes of play. The Frenchman had a good match, but still needs to raise his level of play to advance into the later rounds.

Simon will play Romanian Victor Hanescu in the third round. He leads their head-to-head matchup 1-0. Let’s hope he builds upon this win.

(Image: FFT)