Simon Becomes First London Finals Contender Into Valencia QFs

© Getty ImagesGilles Simon finished runner-up to Nicolas Almagro in the 2006 Valencia final.

Fifth-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon kept alive his chances of qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals this month, with a hard-fought 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 second round win over Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic Wednesday at the Valencia Open 500, an ATP World Tour 500 tournament. 

The 24-year-old Simon has now added 80 points this week to his total, he still has a lot of work to do to make it to the prestigious season finale.  The 2006 runner-up (l. to Almagro), who is currently No. 13 in the year-to-date South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings, hit 11 aces and saved 11 of 13 break points for victory in two hours and 19 minutes.

Simon, who improved to a 44-27 match record on the season, won his sixth ATP World Tour title at the PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok (d. Troicki).  Berdych, who will lead Czech Republic against Spain in the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas final in December, captured his fifth ATP World Tour title at the BMW Open in Munich (d. Youzhny) in May.  The World No. 19 dropped to a 35-24 season record. 

Simon’s countryman, sixth seed Gael Monfils, saw his London Finals bid come to an end as he fell to Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2, 7-5 in his second-round match. Monfils had entered Valencia at No. 16 in the Battle for London, and after Wednesday’s loss, will enter next week’s BNP Paribas Masters – the final tournament of the regular season – more than 1,000 Rankings points behind Fernando Verdasco at No. 8.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, this week's third seed, is in a race to be fit for next week’s BNP Paribas Masters after the Frenchman retired with a left wrist injury in the third set of his first-round clash against Mikhail Youzhny of Russia. The 27-year-old Youzhny, who captured the Kremlin Cup title at Moscow (d. Tipsarevic) two weeks ago, was leading Tsonga 6-7(3), 6-0, 3-0 after 90 minutes of play. 

Tsonga, currently No. 11 in the year-to-date rankings, is 380 points behind No. 8-ranked Verdasco, who advanced to the second round when fellow Spaniard and wild card entry Oscar Hernandez retired early in the second set with lower back pain. Fourth seed Verdasco was leading 6-1, 0-1 after 30 minutes of play.