Gilles Simon French professional tennis player

Gilles Simon born December 27, 1984 is a French professional tennis player and former World No. 6. He is a nine time winner on the ATP World Tour. His coach is French tennis veteran Thierry Tulasne, and his fitness trainer is Paul Quetin.
Contents
* 1 Personal life
* 2 Career
o 2.1 Early career
o 2.2 2006
o 2.3 2007
o 2.4 2008
o 2.5 2009
o 2.6 2010
o 2.7 2011
* 3 Playing style
* 4 Equipment
* 5 Major finals
o 5.1 Masters Series finals
+ 5.1.1 Singles: 1 (0–1)
* 6 Career finals
o 6.1 Singles: 11 (9–2)
* 7 Singles performance timeline
* 8 ATP Tour career earnings
* 9 References
* 10 External links
Personal life
Simon was born in Nice, France, into a family with no involvement in sport, with his mother being a doctor and his father working in insurance. Supported by his parents, he started playing tennis at the age of 6. Due to a growth delay that runs in the family, he was shorter than most kids in his age during his early teenage years. This is the reason he cites Michael Chang as a major influence, as his comparatively small frame proved that size was not an important factor in playing tennis.
On September 2, 2010, Simon became a father for the first time. His partner Carine Lauret gave birth to a baby boy. The couple named their first child Timothée. Timothée was born four weeks ahead of schedule, when Simon was competing in the 2010 US Open.
Career
Early career
Simon began his professional tennis career in the summer of 2002, competing at multiple Futures tournaments in France before playing in tournaments outside the country of his birth. His first Futures title came in Lisbon, Portugal, in June 2003, and reached the quarterfinals of three other tournaments. He then captured his second title in Jamaica in September. During 2004 he saw three wins in France and another in Algeria.
In January 2005, he won his first ATP Challenger hard court tournament in Nouméa, New Caledonia, and defended it the following year. Ranked as World No. 113, Simon made his Grand Slam debut at the 2005 French Open, losing in the first round to Olivier Patience in four sets.
2006
Simon competed at the first grand slam of the year, the Australian Open, where he beat Nicolás Massú and Tomáš Berdych before being defeated by No. 13 Thomas Johansson in the third round. After his result in the tournament, he broke into the Top 100 for the first time, climbing to No. 89.
The Frenchman reached his first ATP Tour final in Valencia with wins over Andreas Seppi in the quarterfinal and Fernando Verdasco in the semifinal but lost to Nicolás Almagro 6–2, 6–3. He also made it to the semifinals in Casablanca, as well as the round of 16 in both the ATP Masters Series tournaments in Monte Carlo and Hamburg. At the end of the year Simon was ranked 45th in the world.
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon