Infuriating.

David Ferrer is number 6 in the world and the best short man in the game.  He plays a form of Nadal-lite.  He lacks Nadal’s heavy strokes or his raw athleticism, but when he plays well, he can pressure you and beat players much bigger than him.

And yet Gilles Simon is one infuriating player to play.  Of all the top players, Simon relies on his steadiness and quickness and forces you to hit lots of balls.  He won’t punish you with pace, although he is capable of hitting hard shots if the opportunity is right.  But he generally prefers to make you hit ball after ball and goad you into making an error.  His speed allows him to get to many balls.

Everyone felt that David Ferrer and Gilles Simon would play a long match.  Ferrer is willing to be patient as well, but does play more aggressive than Simon.  Simon, of course, wins by playing very long matches.

And play a long match they did.  Simon won the first set on the strength of a break.  He apparently had five match points in the second set, but Ferrer was able to win in a tiebreak.  Simon got ahead 3-1, but Ferrer was able to break and got back to 4-all.  Simon then broke for a 5-4 lead, his consistency befuddling Ferrer.  One point was earned when Simon, who missed a return, challenged the call of fault, got it, got a second serve, and won that point. Ferrer hit his drink powder mix all over the ground in frustration during a break.

He should have been happy with how he was still in the match.  Ferrer made 70 unforced errors, a count that would make a player like Maria Sharapova or Roger Federer, both known for high error count, blush.

Down 5-4, Ferrer was able to play two aggressive forehands and get 0-30, then get another point to 0-40, and it seemed, with 3 break points, the match was going to go to a tiebreak.  However, Simon uncorked a huge serve, then served and volleyed to 30-40, then another big serve to deuce.  Simon then hit an ace at match point and completed 5 straight points in a row to defeat the Spaniard.

Although Simon tells the story of how small he was when he was growing up and had to work hard to beat bigger players, he’s since grown to just under 6 feet.  Ferrer is about 5’9″, so Simon is still a bit taller than Ferrer, although Ferrer is stockier than the slim Simon.

Novak Djokovic won handily, 6-3, 6-3, over Radek Stepanek, but this was a bit infuriating for Djokovic as well.  He broke and was broken twice in the second set, before he finally held serve, and was able to claim the match.  Stepanek, one of the few players that come to net a great deal, struggled with Djokovic’s pinpoint passes.  He lost more than half the points at net and reminds folks why charging to net, even when you can volley, has largely been shunned.

Gilles Simon takes on Andy Murray next.  This could be an interesting match for Murray to play someone as steady as Simon.  Murray generally prefers to play power players, and will want to be more aggressive against Simon.

Two matches left this evening.  Roger Federer to play James Blake.  Blake plays a bit like Federer.  He goes for his shots.  He just lacks Federer’s finesse.  Federer has dominated Blake even when Blake was at his best.  One imagines, with Blake trying to come back, that Federer will be able to handle him like he has before.  The other match is between Monfils and Kohlschreiber.