Eighth-seeded Florian Mayer (GER) mixed deft touch with powerful groundstrokes to upset second-seeded Gilles Simon(FRA) in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, at the BMW Tennis Championship, winning the tournament for the first time and capturing his second title of the year.

The 25-year-old Frenchman, who had played relentless, near-flawless tennis in his run through the tournament, hit a brick wall when he came up against Mayer’s backboard-like consistency.

Mayer, currently ranked No. 53 in the world, won the first four games of the match, breaking the No. 21-ranked Simon twice. The lanky 6’4” German mixed huge, looping forehands with deep, slicing backhands to drive Simon sideline to sideline before pulling him in with soft, tape-skimming dropshots. It seemed that Mayer had borrowed a page from Potito Starace's (ITA) playbook. In his second-round match against Simon, Starace repeatedly lofted dropshots from the baseline, most of which Simon tracked down and swatted away for winners. However, unlike Starace's dropshots, which hit the court and stayed up, Mayer's hit the court and died, giving the Frenchman little chance for a return.

Down 0-4, Simon struck back. In the fifth game, up 40-love, Simon whipped a crisp cross-court forehand to hold serve for the first time in the match. He then broke Mayer's serve in game six and held serve in game seven, reeling off three straight games and cutting the German's lead to 4-3.

In a post-match interview, Mayer attributed the dramatic turnabout to fatigue.

"I played my best tennis in the first four games, then I got tired," he said.

Mayer would get his second wind in the eighth game, however, holding serve on a beautiful forehand volley to lead 5-3. Simon then won the next six points, holding at love in game nine and going up, love-30, in game ten, before Mayer took four straight points to win the game and the set, 6-4.

Perhaps bothered by swirling on-court breezes or his chronically sore right knee, Simon made uncharacteristic unforced errors and fell behind 1-3 in the second set.

Simon fought back, though, yielding only two points in winning his next two service games to cut the deficit to 3-4. He then broke Mayer, knotting the score at 4-4 and prompting a French fan to remark hopefully, "Le vent a tourne" ("the winds have changed"). Mayer soon dashed that hope, however. With rain droplets briefly falling, he broke Simon right back to go up 5-4 and serve for the match.

In the final game, serving at 40-love with three Championship points on his racquet, Mayer aced Simon to win the tournament for the first time in four appearances and extend his career record against Simon to 3-0.

Story by Amy Roth, BMW Tennis Championship Media Staff
March 21, 2010