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  • Preview: Gilles Simon vs Paul-Henri Mathieu (8)

    2/15/08 12:07 PM | David Cox
    - After the exit of Richard Gasquet last night, there are 3 Frenchmen in the quarters carrying home hopes, these two and Nicholas Mahut.

    Simon certainly showed the kind of form yesterday which could potentially take him to the final, ousting Novak Djokovic 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3. Despite missing matchpoint in the 2nd set tiebreak, Simon stepped up his game and found some crunching winners at the start of the 3rd. Mathieu ground out another tight result - 7-6(4), 7-6(5) against Michael Llodra.

    These two have played two times before, Mathieu winning both of them and quite comfortably too. None of their previous encounters have been indoors though, Mathieu winning 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 in the second round of last year’s French Open and then 6-4, 6-3 a few months later in the New Haven quarters

    Both players are enjoying some of the best form of their careers, Simon making big rises last year to reach that top 30 benchmark, picking up his first title along the way on the clay of Bucharest. He secured some notable victories too, dumping Andy Murray out in the first round of Rome and then doing the double over Davydenko in Sopot and New Haven.

    Since his infamous loss in the 2002 Davis Cup final, Mathieu has been branded, perhaps unfairly, as a choker. It took him several years to recover properly from that 5 set defeat to Mikhail Youzhny but over the past two seasons, the 26 year old from Strasbourg has started to build on that early promise he’d shown. He’s currently ranked 21 in the world and briefly broke the top 20 last October after making the final of Moscow. Clay is his best surface and he picked up two titles on the red stuff last year aswell as displaying an impressive all-court ability, also making the last 16 at Wimbledon and achieving good runs on the hard courts and indoor carpet.

    It’s been a reasonable start to the year for both, their Australian Open hopes being dashed by Rafael Nadal in successive rounds, Simon pushing the Spaniard more in the last 32, coming close to taking the opening set before getting worn down in the heat.

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