Tennis
Simon into Open Sud semis
2012-02-03 18:31
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Montpellier - Second-seeded Gilles Simon edged French wild card Guillaume Rufin 7-6 (5), 6-7 (2), 6-2 Friday to reach the semifinals of the Open Sud de France.
Simon won the all-French match when a backhand from Rufin sailed long.
Rufin was let down by his serve in the final set, double-faulting five times and landing only 38 percent of his first attempts.
Simon took the first set tiebreaker on a forehand error from Rufin.
Rufin hit two consecutive forehand winners to lead 6-2 in the second tiebreaker and leveled at one set apiece when Simon netted a backhand.
Collated results from the fifth day of the ATP tournament on Friday (x denotes seeding):
Quarter-finals
Gilles Simon (FRA x2) bt Guillaume Rufin (FRA) 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (2/7), 6-2
Tomas Berdych (CZE x1) bt Nicolas Mahut (FRA) 6-3, 6-4
Gael Monfils (FRA x3) bt Jarkko Nieminen (FIN x8) 6-3, 6-3
Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER x7) bt Richard Gasquet (FRA x4) 6-2, 3-6, 6-3