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12/20/08 7:48 PM | David Cox
With Christmas approaching and the 2009 season just a fortnight away, most will be stepping up their training. However, Gilles Simon is having a tougher workout than the rest of the top 10.
Simon is in Toulouse for a five-day exhibition event featuring most of France's top stars, albeit with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet, and Fabrice Santoro missing.
Most of the matches have gone as expected so far with Paul-Henri Mathieu looking like the man in form. He crushed Arnaud Clement 6-4, 6-0 and then inflicted a similarly heavy 6-1, 6-2 defeat on upcoming prospect Adrian Mannarino.
Mathieu now plays Michael Llodra to decide who comes top of the Blue Group. Llodra was involved in a real scrap with Clement on Friday; it went to the wire with Llodra taking it 10-6 in the champions tiebreak for his first victory in three matches against the veteran. "It wasn't easy to play against a good friend," Llodra said, "but I need to raise my level from now on."
In the Red Group, Simon started off with a routine 6-4, 6-3 win over Marc Gicquel, but he looked quite shaky against the big serving Josselin Ouanna yesterday. Simon had to recover from 5-3 down in the first set tiebreak before taking it 8-6 against the world No. 154. He served for the match at 5-4 in the second, but Ouanna hit back before eventually falling 7-6, 7-5. Despite being the lowest ranked of the eight players, Ouanna has given an excellent account of himself and he's unlucky not to still be in contention having also pushed Julien Benneteau all the way on Thursday.
"I lost but to push the world no 7 this close is very encouraging for 2009," Ouanna said. Simon admitted he could have finished the match off faster but nerves got the better of him.
Benneteau ensured his place in the semis with a dramatic 7-6(10), 7-5 win over Gicquel, saving six set points in the opening frame of play. He next faces Simon to decide who comes top of the group.
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