Simon impresses post Wimbledon

Frenchman Gilles Simon is an accomplished player as evidenced by his history as a top ten player for 12 months consecutively from October 2008 to October 2009.  Injury and inconsistency throughout 2010 saw the ranking drop as low as 52 before ending the year around the 40 mark.

Gilles Simon at the French Open 2011

This year has seen the revival of his career - Simon is an exciting player to watch in full flight and his performances at the French Open capped off an excellent comeback into the world's top 20.  He won in Sydney, made the quarters in the Miami Masters event before retiring against Federer, and bowing out to Soderling in the 4th round at Roland Garros was no disgrace.

A third round exit at Wimbledon should be placed in context also, given that he lost the first two sets in close tie breaks, and his opponent was the ever dangerous floater in the draw - Juan Martin Del Potro. 

First outing after the grass courts was in Stuttgart where a tough 3 setter went to Spain's Albert Montanes, a disappointing but not totally unexpected result given the ability of his opponent on the surface.

However one week later, still in Germany, the Hamburg tournament presented Gilles with his finest collection of wins for the year - following a bye in the first round, he proceeded to knock over Stakhovsky and Nieminen (both around the top 50) before 3 set wins over the tournament's top seed Gael Monfils, 4th seed Russian Michael Youzhny, and in the final world number 14 and 3rd seed Spain's Nicolas Almagro.

With the tournament triumph, Simon is now back to 11 in the world, and is every chance to be within the top ten by the time the US hard court season swings into gear.  Another demonstration of how commitment to a responsible training discipline invariably will see the best players return to their rightful place in the rankings after injury, because talent is not lost overnight.