The French of 23-years old Gilles Simon upset the No.
2 of the world Roger Federer in the first game of the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai by beating him 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
This is Simon's first time at the year-end tournament and this victory surprised everyone, not only by the way he played against Federer but by proving everyone he didn't came to Shanghai to just participate, he is competing for the title.
Gilles Simon was called to the tournament after the No.
1 Rafael Nadal announced he will withdraw the tournament due to injury and fatigue.
The 13-time Grand Slam champion, Roger Federer had an injury on his back and withdrew a couple weeks ago at the Paris Masters to rest and prepare for this final tournament.
However his lack of serve in this match against Simon and his interminable errors, gave the French an easy way to achieve the victory.
Federer had 50 unforced errors compared to 38 from Simon, and the Swiss serve was more slow than usual, that gave the Frenchman an advantage in the game.
Although, at the beginning of the match, the Swiss seemed comfortable and ready to play as he defeated the Frenchman 6-4 in the first set and was winning 3-2 in the second set.
Nevertheless Simon got back on track by breaking some points and minimizing his errors and at the end, the French played almost perfectly in the last two sets and Federer finished with fatal errors.
The Swiss expressed that his serve was not meaningful due to his injury and that he didn't have enough practice, besides he admitted that the Frenchman played in an amazing way.
"Definitely today I missed shots I normally don't miss.
I think that's just lack of practice.
I didn't serve full-blast, especially from the start.
I don't know if that cost me the match.
Besides the better you play, the better he plays, he's quite an unusual player and he makes you work hard and runs very well," said the defending champion world Federer.
This is the 14th loss of Federer this season and the second against the Frenchman, who also beat him at the Toronto Masters in a great way.
This season hasn't been the greatest for the Swiss as he lost his consecutive winning strike at Wimbledon and his four and half year reign as the No.
1 of the world.
Nevertheless, it has to be mentioned that Federer has fought through all that adversity; he recovered his game by winning the U.
S Open and the doubles gold medal at Beijing Olympics, gaining back his credibility as a great tennis player.
Besides, this is not the final match for Federer on the tournament as he has yet to play against Murray and Roddick and seek for chance to classify for the semifinals on Saturday.
Last year the same situation happened to Federer, who lost the first game against Fernando Gonzalez, but then the Swiss got all the way to the final playing in great way, grasping the Tennis Masters Cup title for the 4th time in his professional career.
Everyone that admires this talented player hope for the Swiss to have the same luck than last year and to end the season in an amazing way.
On the other hand, there are some other tennis fans that would like to see some other player winning the tournament.
We'll witness if the history changes or not at the end of this week.