Catch a Falling Star: Gilles Simon

Going into 2009, Frenchman Gilles Simon was coming off the best season of his career. In 2008, he’d won three titles, defeating Roger Federer in Toronto and Rafael Nadal in Madrid; a rare feat to accomplish in one year, but even rarer was the fact that both Federer and Nadal were ranked No. 1 at the time Simon defeated them. These results propelled him into the top 10 for the first time, allowing him to qualify for the season-ending Master’s Cup in Shanghai. There he scored his second win over Federer, en route to the semis, and reached a career-high ranking of No. 6 by January. At this year’s Australian Open he reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time, only falling to eventual champion Nadal. So...what happened? Simon has not even been to a final this year, and he’s fallen back to No. 10. He is not a hard player to root for if you’ve watched him play: Not generating a ton of power on his own, he instead plays the classic counterpunc...