In tonight’s second semifinal at the BMW Tennis Championship, No. 2 seed Gilles Simon (FRA) blasted down-the-line forehands, ripped cross-court backhands and whipped seeing-eye approach shots that dazzled the fans and bedeviled his opponent. The technical completeness of Simon’s game was too much for Santiago Giraldo (COL), as the Frenchman won in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2, to advance to the finals for the first time.

After his quick-and-easy quarterfinal victory over Jan Hajek (CZE) in yesterday afternoon’s quarterfinals, 6-3, 0-0 (retired), Simon came out on court this evening looking fresh-faced and well-rested. Giraldo, by contrast, had had a tough fight in his own quarterfinal match, outlasting third-seeded Benjamin Becker (GER) in a tough three-setter that ended after 11 pm Friday.

The players, who were facing each other for the first time, held their first service games to open the match. With Giraldo serving at 30-30 in the fourth game, Simon put away a backhand volley so gracefully, it prompted a fan to remark, “That was the paso doble,” a reference to the lively Spanish dance modeled after the movement of a bullfight. Simon broke on the next point to go up 3-1, and ran the score to 4-1 on an easy service game.

Sweating profusely on a cool evening, Giraldo struggled mightily to hold his serve in game six. A double fault on the second deuce point prompted Giraldo to talk to himself; the pep talk worked, for the moment, as the Colombian blasted an ace to knot the score at deuce. On the next point, however, Simon gained another break point on a ferocious backhand out of Giraldo's reach that painted the baseline. On the next point, Giraldo made an unforced error to give Simon his second break. Simon was up, 5-1.

The Frenchman held serve in the next game to take the first set in just 21 minutes.

Simon played smart, tenacious and near-perfect tennis. In the second set, despite a chronic tendon injury in his right knee, Simon didn’t give up on any points, running sideline to sideline to track down Giraldo groundstrokes. And even though Giraldo made few unforced errors in the match, Simon made even fewer.

With the score tied at 2-2 in the second set, Simon reeled off four straight games to take the set 6-2.

In the seventh game, up 15-love, Giraldo ripped a backhand down-the-line that drew Simon wide to his backhand side. He popped up a weak return, giving Giraldo a lip-smacking sitter that he merely had to tap into the empty deuce court for a winner. But the 22-year-old apparently lost concentration and mis-hit the sure winner, which bounced into the bottom of the net, giving Simon the break to go up 5-2. Simon held in the final game to win the set and the match, 6-1, 6-2. The match lasted under an hour.

With his win, Simon advances to tomorrow’s finals, where he’ll face Florian Mayer (GER), who beat Leonardo Mayer (ARG) in the other semifinal, 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-3.

 

Story by Amy Roth, BMW Tennis Championship Media Staff

March 20, 2010