Gilles Simon is a renowned professional tennis player from France. Finalist of the 2010 Davis Cup in the national team. Winner of 14 ATP titles in singles.
Biography
The future athlete was born in December 1984 on the 27th in the French city of Nice. Like most professional athletes, Simon started training very early. Parents gave the future star to the tennis section at the age of six. During his childhood, he trained at Fontaine. After leaving school, he entered the National Sports Institute, which is located on the outskirts of Paris. There he became interested in music and began to play the piano at the conservatory.
Despite his impressive height (183 cm), in his youth he was much shorter than his peers and was very complex about this. Many academy mentors believed that Simon did not have a career as a tennis player. Gilles was inspired by the success of the American athlete Michael Chang, who achieved great heights in tennis and at the same time had a relatively small height for this sport (170 cm).
Professional career
Simon first appeared in professional tennis tournaments in 2002. During the season, he won six different ITF tournaments. Two years later, he made his first visit to the ATP tournament, which was held in Metz. The debut at the highest level failed, Gilles lost in the first match to more experienced rival Marc Giquel.
In 2005, the beginner athlete won the ATP Challenger and managed to get to the tournament held in Casablanca. In this competition, Simon reached the quarter-finals stage. In the spring of the same year, the athlete was given a "wild card", thanks to which he was able to take part in the prestigious Roland Garos tournament. But despite the hopes placed on the athlete, he could not advance beyond the first round, where he lost to the athlete from France Olivier Potians without much struggle.
Games in doubles have never been easy for Simon, the highest result of which he managed to achieve was in 2007. Then he took 137th place in the world ranking of tennis players, still this is the best result of the famous Frenchman. A year later, Gilles also set a career best in singles. Then he took seventh place in the singles ranking. To date, he is only ranked 55th in singles and 296th in doubles.
For 2019, Simon continues his career and managed to participate in several significant tournaments, but did not achieve great success. In a tournament in Australia, he made it to the semifinals, but missed out on a win against a younger and more energetic opponent. At the US Open, Gilles in the second round met with Russian tennis player Andrei Rublev, who confidently beat the Frenchman in the first set, after which Simon decided to refuse further participation in the tournament.
Personal life and family
The athlete is married to Karin Laura. In 2010, the couple had a son, who was named Timothy.
