It prolongs the pleasure!
After the retirement of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Roland-Garros, it was Gilles Simon who was to play his last career match at Bercy, but it was without counting on the resignation of the Frenchman.
Already a surprise winner over Andy Murray in the 1st round, “Gilou” went for a new feat against Taylor Fritz in the second round of the Rolex Paris Masters in three sets (7-5, 5-7, 6-4).
“I wanted to put everything on one last time, so I put everything on,” reacted with a smile Gilles Simon at the microphone of Eurosport.
IT'S NOT YET FOR TONIGHT PEOPLE!!!
Gilou is in eighth in Paris 💥🇫🇷 #RolexParisMasters pic.twitter.com/jcH46aslGe
— ROLEX PARIS MASTERS (@RolexPMasters) November 2, 2022
The former world number 6, who announced that Bercy was the last tournament of his career, did everything to postpone his farewell.
The 37-year-old Frenchman made the 11th player in the world suffer, winning the first set 7-5, and breaking at 2-1 in the second set.
Unfortunately, mistreated after a fight against Murray for his entry into the running, the physique of the now 188th in the world began to weaken: “There are pains that come.
It becomes somewhat irreversible.
I play the game saying there is no tomorrow.
If I can't walk tomorrow, so be it."
Joined in the score then doubled at the end of the round, Simon saw his opponent, quarter-finalist of the last Wimbledon, return to a set everywhere.
But in a Bercy in fusion, under the "Gilou, Gilou" of the public, the member of the four musketeers alongside Gaël Monfils, Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, went to offer victory by breaking his opponent at the best time. , before serving for the match (7-5, 5-7, 6-4).
Everything was still ready behind the scenes to say goodbye to the 2010 Davis Cup finalist, but Simon has once again postponed the deadline.
In the next round, the French will have to achieve a new feat.
On the program, the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime, recent winner of the Basel tournament, to keep dreaming.