Andy Murray served for the match against Gilles Simon but the veteran escaped defeat in what would have been his final career match to win it 4-6 7-5 6-3.
Gilles Simon was largely known as part of the French Musketeers, a group of four players that grew up together and went on to become excellent tennis players. One of them, Tsonga, said goodbye to tennis earlier this year at the Roland Garros with Simon set to become the second one to retire.
Tsonga was in Paris tonight to watch the match as were the remaining Musketeers, Monfils and Gasquet, with Simon coming one gay away from retirement. Andy Murray played a solid opening set hitting 15 winners en route to a 6-4 finish.
The second set featured some more solid play by Andy Murray who eventually got another break with a chance to close out the set. He won the first point but lost all others to give Simon another chance. He went on to completely turn around the set winning it 7-5.
The final set saw Simon break Murray early and then hold from 15-40 down to take a 3-1 lead. He would add another break to finish off the match 6-3 in the final set extending his career by at least one more match. This was only his 3rd win over Murray in 19 meetings.
Wow. Playing the last tournament of his career, 37yo Gilles Simon comes back from 4-6, 3-5* to beat former #1 and 2016 champion Andy Murray 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 and reach the 2nd round in Paris vs. Fritz. Just Simon's 3rd win in 19 matches vs. Murray. Incredible stuff.
