Rolex Paris Masters – Gilles Simon and the misunderstanding of his potential: “he had everything to become world number 1”

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and his unsteady backhand. Gaël Monfils and his tendency to play very far from his streak. Richard Gasquet and his lack of ego. We’ve heard a lot of feedback of all kinds explaining why a brilliant, distinguished generation, who has had a good time in French tennis for the past 15 years, couldn’t win that damn Grand Slam title. In an irrevocable sentence, perhaps she quickly and unfairly obscures a little what the great has accomplished: she could have done better.

Then Jill Simon? He didn’t really get into that discussion. Think about it: win 14 titles, beat the entire Big Four, reach sixth in the world, play the Masters (2008), reach two finals in the Masters 1000 (Madrid 2008, Shanghai 2014) as well as two Grand Slam quarter-finals . (Australian Open 2009, Wimbledon 2015) It still wasn’t bad but rather unexpected for a player the miniature world wondered if he would one day make it his career.

This concept has increased its potential, “againstIt is something that has been said a lot about me but is completely wrong, With the great track we know, Eurosport said at the start of the week at the Rolex Paris Masters, before taking his last course there. At the same time, people always saw me as weaker than I was. I wasn’t really the person we imagined even in the top 100 in the world, even lower in the 50, 20 or 10. Inevitably, once I got to that high when we already had a hard time imagining myself three levels below, it just makes sense to sum up: I totally took advantage of it.” It’s just a picture that hung on me, like the others. I was stuck with the image of a man who would never be strong. “

It’s true that Gilles Simon hasn’t put much effort into showcasing the glamorous assets of a field. His first ball was agonizingly over 190 km/h, and he’s had to hit three slides with a backhand in his run and often get into the net just to shake hands with his opponent. We knew better equipped arsenals.

His own power was mysterious and invisible, based on the optimal exploitation of opposing imperfections and the geometry of the court, a professorial application of the famous angle theory so dear to Henri Cochet, and also, despite everything, a sense of timing not sufficiently emphasized. . But overall, it wasn’t a show, let alone a circus. science was. And science, in particular, excites more “nerds” than insiders.

From an early age, Jill Simon, in addition to having to deal with a very weak physique, had to come to terms with this latent idea that he would have to fight to snatch a small place in the sun. In the group photos, it was always the fourth wheel of the aforementioned “Big French” wagon.

During his training, it was the same: if he followed the entire Federal cycle, it was so dangerous that he was caught several times by Kolback thanks to the executives who (in spite of everything) believed in him and defended him fiercely against those, more numerous, who ” wink” for his lack of results and these famous capabilities.

Gilles Simon’s first weapon feats on the pro circuit, in the mid-2000s, were also accompanied by another often-whiskered quote: He would have “melon,” “polar,” and an arrogance beyond little comprehension. It is true that he showed self-confidence that seemed inversely proportional to the methods attributed to him.

Basically, the misunderstanding may have started from there: Gilles Simon proclaimed his strength, tired of the constant vilification of his reputation. At one point, he felt compelled to lower his voice and silence his ambitions, perhaps also so as not to conflict with the commitment of modesty befitting any French athlete with his audience.

However, when he reached sixth place in the world in 2009, In my head, perhaps nothing prevents me from becoming #1, This week he took him to L’Equipe. It sounds arrogant but it always makes sense: these guys (Big 3) They are monsters but I defeated them. They are stronger but not far away. This is how I built myself. I say things that make sense to me but not to others. The encounter with the world of media and the expectations of the public was difficult for me. You have created a situation of disconnection.”

It’s the least we can say. Jill Simon, ranked 1 in the world in power? We would have found few observers agreeing with them. Except for those who knew him closely. “Of course, Jill had everything to become the world number one, So says mental trainer Ronan Lavix, who worked with him in 2017 and 2018. He had the passion, intellectual qualities, and thirst for progress that the greatest of heroes had. Djokovic, Murray, at the base, they have nothing more than him. Except that they, like Nadal and Federer, worked very early on the mental side, which allowed them to develop their own playing style, not a generation. He did not face enough challenge during his training. Then he went to find the solutions himself, but it was a little late.”

Several times, during his last tournament, the player emphasized that one of the things he was most proud of in his career was that he had succeeded in this long internal journey that allowed him little by little to learn how to deal with the moments of tension that inevitably appear at the bottom of the career. Especially from the moment he understood that he should not shirk his fears, but actually begin to welcome and commission them, to better bear them and write them off.

Moreover, in the logic of transfer, in 2020 he released a book (“Tennis, this sport that drives you crazy”) that focuses a lot on the topic of the mental approach, according to him, the erroneous one in France. “I think we locked ourselves in too much in an approach based on envy and fighting He said Thursday evening after his defeat to Felix Auger-Aliassime, who respects him precisely for the ease in expressing his doubts, despite the praise that descends upon him. That’s a little different with Nadal or Djokovic, who also had more personal trajectories. For me, it’s mainly because of that. It took me a long time to understand that my problems weren’t going to pass by themselves, and miraculously. But when you do it on the 26th, it’s too late…”

For Ronan Lavix, Simon shouldn’t have come to develop this tactical genius that made his signature. Because he should have upgraded his weapons first. But he deviated from a policy that was somewhat “short-term”, more concerned with wanting to win immediately rather than improving his potential later. “Gil, what he wanted was to play games all the time. Above all, win them. He developed a short game to win and he did it very well. But that was where it should have encouraged him to think. More about the future, he was lacking to ambition in his game and pay for it afterwards.”

He paid for it when massive top-level pressure ended up catching up with the simple love of the game, to the point of suffocating it. Then Simon himself was surpassed by this “non-separation” which he would never let go during the rest of his career, forcing him to often play with the handbrake firing poorly, even if it meant leaving a lot of rubber in the first laps. Finally, like Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet, it was perhaps early in his career that he played his games as the most relaxed. Then, he was always running after this torch of recklessness.

According to former coach Stephane Robert and coach of “Be PRO”, he lost this race in advance, because the time lost in the beginning could no longer be compensated, especially in an era dominated by this type of Formula 1. “To win, Jill has developed this ability to get into the head of another and forget himself a little in that, when he is able to do a lot of things on the court. He accepted a lot to win. That’s fine, but you can’t develop enough self-confidence by playing that way. The best players always impose their game. Enjoy it, because he was winning. Even tired of winning is the pain.”

Somehow, Jill Simon ended up touching the famous limits of his potential. Even if a potential, like a talent, is very abstract and unfathomable, it is an idea that precisely defines its essence. There is still one truth that will not be taken away from him: with the cards in his hands, Gilles Simon will have given everything on the field, right up to the last point. To improve or not to improve a potential, he will at least try to extract from it to the last drop. This will not remain the smallest lesson the professor learns.