The twenty-fifth seed Gilles Simon avoided the fate that his fellow seeded Frenchman Lucas Pouille suffered in the first round, by dismissing American wildcard Michael Mmoh 61 63 63.
The scene was similar to that of the Pouille match yesterday: a seeded Frenchman taking on a nineteen year-old (Bublik) who had little to lose. Yet Simon was in control almost from the off against Mmoh, refusing to allow the American to settle by winning six of the first seven games.
Simon spent much of the first set playing the consistent groundstrokes that he has been associated with throughout his career. This allowed him to either wait for the error from Mmoh, of which there were many, or to seize on the eventual short ball to take control of the point.
There was brief blip for Simon in the second set, with Mmoh breaking early for a two-one lead. The Frenchman broke back immediately though, and then broke again to lead the second set. Mmoh’s struggles were clear, not putting enough first serves in play, and really getting punished by Simon on second serve. Mmoh built a reputation on the American Challenger circuit for being consistent, not dissimilar to Simon’s game.
However, there was little doubt where the class lay in this match, as Simon continued enjoy success in return games, breaking early in the third. Simon threatened at five-two, but instead had to settle for serving the match out. Mmoh put a fight in the final game, earning a break point, but eventually blasted a service return long on match point to hand the favourite the win.
Simon’s seeding is eleven places worse off than last year’s (14), and is defending fourth round points after coming close to defeating eventual winner Novak Djokovic in that fourth round.
His second round encounter could feature another young American, as he awaits the winner of Jared Donaldson’s match with Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva.
