Ninth Title for Gilles Simon in Hamburg

Written by: Global Chick on 25th July 2011

ATP tennis tournament Hamburg Rothenbaum

Ninth Title for Gilles Simon in Hamburg

French tennis professional Gilles Simon in action against Spanish tennis professional Nicolas Almagro during the ATP tennis tournament final match at Rothenbaum in Hamburg, Germany, 24 July 2011. EPA/ANGELIKA WARMUTH |

Frenchman Gilles Simon won his second title of the season and his ninth career title at the bet-at-home Open – German Tennis Championships. The World No. 18 also won the Sydney Medibank International in January.

Simon took out Spaniard and the number three seed Nicolas Almagro in the final in Hamburg 6-4 4-6 6-4. The last Frenchman to win the Hamburg tournament was Henri Leconte in 1986 when he defeated Mecir in the final.

For winning this ATP World Tour 500 tennis tournament Simon will earn 500 ATP ranking points and €230 000. Simon’s ranking will move to World No. 11. He started the season at World No. 44.

Gilles Simon won the first set after breaking Almagro’s serve in the fifth game. Almagro got off to a good start in the second set and raced ahead 3-0, the Spaniard had a chance to get a double break. Simon came back and levelled at 4-4 but Almagro broke Simon’s serve and then won the set after winning his own serve.

The match took two hours and 38 minutes and Simon closed the match by winning the third set 6-4. “It was a high intensity final. I think Nicolas played very good tennis, very consistent. I knew before he could hit very hard, but also he didn’t miss anything, so I really had to fight hard on every point,” Simon said.

Nicolas Almagro said, “I’m happy with my level of tennis on clay all year. I was a champion at three tournaments and reached two finals.”

Number three seeds Oliver Marach and Alexander Peya defeated Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek in two straight sets in the doubles final at the bet-at-home Open – German Tennis Championships 2011. This title was Marach and Peya’s first ATP Tour team title.

Marach has now won ten ATP World Tour titles and nine of them have been on clay. Marach said, “It’s very nice to win my 10^th title at a big tournament like Hamburg. I was even happier for Alex as it was his first title. I’m also happy that we took revenge for the Belgrade final, when we lost against the same guys.”

Alexander Peya won his first ATP Tour title this week. Peya has reached two finals this year but has lost both in Delray Beach and Belgrade.