A point for you, a point for me. It was a highly unpredictable match offered to us by the No. 6 seed and the former world number six. A battle ultimately won mentally by John Millman in three sets and 3 hours and 17 minutes of play.
In front of about a hundred spectators present this Wednesday morning on the center court of the ATP 250 in Sofia, the match promised to be tight between two top 60 players.
Little by little, the intensity rises and long rallies set in. In this kind of game, the player from Nice is one of the best in the world. The Australian shows his power but falters against the metronome Gilles Simon, who varies short and long play to destabilize his opponent. A little later in the match, Millman tries to come back by taking advantage in the middle of the court. Simon is forced to run sideways and eventually loses his break lead. But shortly after, he regains his form and manages to bring back his alternating play style, the same that had destabilized Millman at the beginning of the match. At 5-6 on his serve, Simon commits three errors and sees his first serve percentage drop. An opportunity that the Australian does not miss to clinch the first set (7-5).
In the second set, frustration mounts on the French side. John Millman wins seven of the last nine games, which coincides with the difficulties encountered on serve by the Azurรฉen. Provoked, Gilles Simon raises his level and manages to regain control of the match thanks to perfectly directed long exchanges. He breaks back and even takes the opponent’s serve! The match is completely back on. But that did not take into account Millman’s mental strength, who overcomes the visibly exhausted player from Nice, due to the efforts made to come back into the match. In a fluctuating performance, neither player manages to take the lead. Despite having two match points against him, the first of which he saves after an incredible 46-shot rally, the Frenchman manages to force the tiebreak. With his back against the wall, he capitalizes on the errors of the seed to take the advantage and never let it go! Second set to Simon (7-6, 7 points to 3).
The final set starts like the previous one. Less present on the court, Simon gets broken right from the start. Frustrated by the quality of his serve, he even plays a few points after conceding a double break to try to regain some momentum. To no avail… The points fly by and the player from Nice is left with nothing to do. After saving four match points, he finally succumbs in three sets (7-5/6-7/6-2) at the end of a marathon match that lasted no less than 3 hours and 17 minutes.
In the next round, Millman will face Canadian Pospisil (world number 74), who defeated the previous day the German No. 4 seed Struff (world number 36).
