France’s Gilles Simon advanced to his 20th ATP World Tour final (13-6) on Friday with victory at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon. Simon broke serve three times in the first set, but then had to battle hard to beat first-time semi-finalist Cameron Norrie of Great Britain 6-1, 7-6(6) in 81 minutes.
The 33-year-old recovered from a 1/4 deficit in the tie-break and saved two set points from 4/6 to move to within one win of a second trophy this year. In the first week of the season, he captured the Tata Open Maharashtra crown (d. Anderson).
The former World No. 6, who is currently No. 75 in the ATP Rankings, has not reached two ATP World Tour finals in a season since 2015, when he captured the Open 13 Provence crown (d. Monfils) and finished runner-up at the Moselle Open (l. to Tsonga).
Norrie, 22, will break into the Top 100 for the first time - at around No. 85 - on Monday. He recorded his first Top 10 victory over American John Isner in the quarter-finals.
Simon awaits the winner of top-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem or Dusan Lajovic of Serbia.
Earlier in the day, Thiem needed 50 minutes to win the third set of his quarter-final against Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez for a 6-7(4), 7-6(0), 6-4 victory in just under three hours. The pair had returned to court at one-set apiece, after darkness had suspended the match on Thursday night.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/2sawcoD
No comments:
Post a Comment