Gilles Simon (French pronunciation: [ʒil si.mɔ̃]; born 27 December 1984) is a French former tennis player. He turned professional in 2002 and won fourteen singles titles on the ATP Tour, and attained a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 6, on 5 January 2009.
Gilles Simon was born in Nice but grew up in Fontenay-sous-Bois, outside Paris. His nickname is "Gilou". His mother is a doctor. His father works for an insurance company. Gilles has a brother.
Supported by his parents, he started playing tennis at the age of six. Owing to a growth delay that runs in the family, he was shorter than most children of his age during his early teenage years. This is the reason he cites Michael Chang as a major influence, as his comparatively small frame proved that size was not the only factor in playing tennis.
Simon and his wife have two sons, born in 2010 and 2013.
Simon began his professional tennis career in the summer of 2002, competing at multiple Futures tournaments in France before playing in tournaments outside the country of his birth. His first Futures title came in Lisbon, Portugal, in June 2003, and he reached the quarterfinals of three other tournaments. He then captured his second title in Jamaica in September. During 2004, he saw three wins in France and another in Algeria.
Simon made his ATP Tour debut in Metz, France in October 2004 as a 19-year-old.
In January 2005, he won his first ATP Challenger hardcourt tournament in Nouméa, New Caledonia, and defended it the following year. Ranked as world No. 113, Simon made his Grand Slam debut at the 2005 French Open, losing in the first round to Olivier Patience in four sets.
Simon competed at the Australian Open, where he beat Nicolás Massú and Tomáš Berdych, before being defeated by No. 13 Thomas Johansson in the third round. After this result, he broke into the top 100 for the first time, climbing to No. 89.
The Frenchman reached his first ATP Tour final in Valencia with wins over Andreas Seppi in the quarterfinal and Fernando Verdasco in the semifinal, but lost to Nicolás Almagro. He also made it to the semifinals in Casablanca, as well as the round of 16 in both the ATP Masters Series tournaments in Monte Carlo and Hamburg. At the end of the year Simon was ranked 45th in the world.
2007: First & second ATP Tour titles
At the beginning of the year, Simon won his first ATP title at the Open 13 in, Marseille, France. En route to the final, Simon beat Lleyton Hewitt, Jonas Björkman, and Robin Söderling. In the final, Simon defeated Marcus Baghdatis.
In September, he won his second title of the year and of his career at the Romania Open in Bucharest. He defeated Victor Hănescu in the final. He broke into the top 30 for the first time on 5 November, and finished the year as No. 29 in the world. By the end of the year, his career record against top-10 players was 4–5.
Simon reached the quarterfinals in Marseille, defeating world No. 3, Novak Djokovic, in the second round. He reached the semifinals in Rotterdam the next week.
In May, he entered Casablanca as a qualifier due to his late entry to the tournament, even though his ranking was high enough to be seeded. Simon went on to win the tournament, defeating Julien Benneteau in the final. After his third-round loss to fellow French Richard Gasquet at Wimbledon, Simon left Europe for the United States to familiarize himself with the hardcourts before the US Open Series. He won the Indianapolis Tennis Championships and hit a career-best No. 25.
The following week, he competed at the Canada Masters in Toronto, including a win over world No. 1, Roger Federer, in the second round, before losing in the semifinals to German veteran Nicolas Kiefer. This resulted in an entry into the top 15, three ranks behind the French number one, Richard Gasquet.
Simon participated in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, playing in the singles for France alongside Paul-Henri Mathieu, Michaël Llodra, and Gaël Monfils. He played doubles with Monfils, but lost in the first round to the Indian team of Bhupathi and Paes. In singles the Frenchman reached the third round before falling to James Blake.
At the US Open, Simon was seeded No. 16. On day six, he lost in the third round to the 17th seed Juan Martín del Potro, in a five-set match that lasted 3 hours and 47 minutes.
On 14 September, Simon won his third title of the year and fifth career title, defeating Carlos Moyá at the Romanian Open. Simon entered the Madrid Masters the following month, defeating No. 11 James Blake and No. 14 Ivo Karlović to reach the semifinals. In the semifinals, he defeated world No. 1, Rafael Nadal, in three sets, in a match that lasted 3 hours and 23 minutes. Simon lost the final to world No. 4, Andy Murray, in straight sets. The tournament boosted Simon to a career-high world No. 10, displacing Richard Gasquet as French No. 1. By the end of 2008, France had four players in the top 20 (Simon, Tsonga, Gasquet, and Monfils), for the first time since computer rankings were established in 1973. The French paper L'Équipe grouped the four player as néo-Mousquetaires. French TV Canal+ went on to produce a documentary series that followed the four French players and their touring around the world. The series "Les 4 Mousquetaires" went on the air for two seasons during 2009 and 2010.