Published: July 21, 2008 02:56 pm            

Frenchman takes Indy tennis title

INDIANAPOLIS — While the on-court competition is fierce, the battle between man and Mother Nature always makes the Indianapolis Tennis Championships singles final a trial of conditioning as the hard court turns into a sweltering griddle.

Three years ago, Taylor Dent was forced to quit in the third set against fellow American Robby Ginepri, as ice and smelling salts failed to pull him back from the depths of heat exhaustion.

With Sunday’s court temperature at well over 100 degrees, defending champion and No. 3 seed Dmitry Tursunov of Russia and No. 2 seed Gilles Simon of France squared off in their first career meeting. Simon proved to be the fitter and sharper of the two, and rolled to a 6-4, 6-4 victory for his second singles title of the season, fourth of his career, and first on United States soil and a hard surface.

“That’s special for me because it’s not the kind of court I like to play usually,” Simon said. “I beat some good players on (this) court, that’s why it’s a very good thing to win this tournament.”

Listed at 5-11 and 143 pounds, Simon wore down 6-6, 200-pound American Sam Querrey during Saturday’s semifinals, and did the same to the 6-1, 180-pound Tursunov.

“Today was my best match of the week,” Simon said. “I was approaching my best tennis today.”

After dropping the match’s first game, Simon rallied to take three straight, and won the first set, 6-4, despite Tursunov notching a 6-0 aces advantage.

Some welcomed cloud-cover provided a slight reprieve in the second set, and tied at 3-3, Simon broke Tursunov’s serve. He then fought back from an 0-40 deficit to take the next game as Tursunov showed his frustration with multiple racquet throws.

“I’ve never played him before so it is a bit surprising how many balls he can get to, and he moves really well around the court,” Tursunov said.

Simon took the match and the title two games later, aided by a call reversal on the game’s first point.

For Simon, it was a big step toward his season-long goal.

“My goal is to reach the top 15 by the end of the year,” said Simon, who started the season ranked at No. 30 and sat 25th going into the week. “But I need more results like this to do that.”

Simon’s victory kept Tursunov from becoming the third player in the event’s history to win back-to-back titles. Pete Sampras accomplished the feat in 1991-92, and Andy Roddick did it in 2003-04.

While Simon and Tursunov eliminated Americans Querrey and James Blake on Saturday, it was a U.S. sweep in Sunday’s doubles final as Ashley Fisher and Tripp Philips took out David Martin (USA) and Scott Lipski (AUS), 3-6, 6-3 (10-5).

        

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