Gilles Simon is playing his final career event and he defeated Andy Murray for only the 3rd time to move on to round two.
Despite playing each other frequently over the years, Simon and Murray's last encounter before this one took place in 2016 when they were both in reasonably good shape. Murray came into this match as the favourite since he has been playing better than Simon all year and has a 16-2 head-to-head record against him.
'I'm happy to get this one because Andy sort of ruined my career (laughs). 16 losses against him, almost a season's worth of losses," joked Simon after the match admitting it felt good to win.
"Every Grand Slam R16, every Masters 1000 QF, even a final... I thought he would ruin it until its very end, but nope, not tonight." added the veteran who will play at least one more match at the Paris Masters.
The match itself was rather long in three sets as both Murray and Simon play physical tennis with long rallies: "It was really difficult physically, but it was difficult physically on his side. But I thought ‘Come on, I have a chance to beat him.’ It is not like I have the best record against Andy. I really wanted to win this one and I was really happy I was able to do it.”
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