Simon Survives Scare To Set Melzer Clash

Gilles Simon survived a scare before booking his place in the semi-finals of the PTT Thailand Open. The second seed dropped the first set but recovered to defeat World No. 66 Evgeny Korolev 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 Friday at the ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament in Bangkok.

The Frenchman, making his debut this week in Bangkok, won just one point more than Korolev in the pair’s third meeting but broke serve three times as he improved to a 3-0 record against the Russian after one hour and 43 minutes.

World No. 10 Simon is looking to rectify the fact that he is the only member of the Top 10 yet to win an ATP World Tour this season. The 24 year old, who has compiled a 34-24 mark, reached the semi-finals at the Open 13 (l. to Llodra) and the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships (l. to Djokovic) in February. He last featured in an ATP World Tour final at the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open (l. to Murray) in October 2008.

Simon has added incentive to perform well in the ATP World Tour Asian swing, the Nice native is bidding to claim one of the three remaining spots at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Last year, the right-hander qualified for the season finale for the first time and defeated Roger Federer in the group stages before reaching the semi-finals (l. to Djokovic).

Simon will need to overturn a 0-1 record against Jurgen Melzer in the semi-finals after the sixth seed made smooth progress with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Andreas Beck. Melzer, who fell at the quarter-final stage last year (l. to Tsonga), was dominant on serve, surrendering just eight points in total, and capitalised on three of the seven break point opportunities he created on Beck’s serve to prevail after 66 minutes.

The No. 44-ranked Melzer is through to his second ATP World Tour semi-final of the season, and first on hard court, after improving to a 28-26 match record. The 28 year old, who also reached the last four at the ATP Studena Croatia Open (l. to Davydenko), is hoping to reach his first ATP World Tour final since finishing runner-up at Kitzbuhel in July 2008 (l. to del Potro).