Monday January 21, 2013
Exhausted Simon may not last against Murray
GILLES Simon admitted yesterday he may not go the distance against Andy Murray after his marathon Australian Open win over Gael Monfils left him struggling to walk and needing hours of treatment.
Simon overcame severe cramps to post a 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 1-6, 8-6 victory against his fellow Frenchman, finishing after midnight on Saturday in four hours 43 minutes, to book a fourth-round berth against the US Open champion.
Afterwards, the world No. 16 required nearly four hours of medical treatment and was in such bad shape that he was unable to attend the customary post-match media interviews.
Deprived of sleep too, Simon gave himself virtually no chance of eliminating Murray, the super-fit Olympic and US Open champion.
“I don’t have a lot of chance to win this one,” he said. “But this is my job to go on the court and do the maximum to bother him, to give him a hard time.
“The thing is, it’s difficult to win 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 against Andy. I’m not sure, if we play longer, that I will be able to make it to the end.”
In a slugfest which featured a 71-shot rally, Simon started cramping towards the end of the second set and he admitted he threw away the third and fourth sets to conserve energy for the fifth.
“I’m never cramping on the court, normally,” Simon said. “So it was a very strange feeling for me. I felt at the end of the second set that it will be very hard to continue to play.
“I decided to rest a little bit in the third and fourth sets and try to give everything in the fifth. I played the end of the match like I was in a dream, like I was not even on the court.” — AFP
RESULTS
Fourth round:
Men’s singles: David Ferrer (Spa) bt Kei Nishikori (Jpn) 6-2, 6-1, 6-4; Nicolas Almagro (Spa) bt Janko Tipsarevic (Srb) 6-2, 5-1 (retired); Tomas Berdych (Cze) bt Kevin Anderson (Rsa) 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (15-13); Novak Djokovic (Srb) bt Stanislas Wawrinka (Sul) 1-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 12-10.
Women’s singles: Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) bt Angelique Kerber (Ger) 7-5, 6-4; Maria Sharapova (Rus) bt Kirsten Flipkens (Bel) 6-1, 6-0; Li Na (Chn) bt Julia Goerges (Ger) 7-6 (8-6), 6-1; Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) bt Ana Ivanovic (Srb) 6-2, 6-4.
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