Gilles Simon Crushes Verdasco

Gilles Simon may have dashed Fernando Verdasco's hopes of qualifying for the ATP World Tour Finals as he beat the Spaniard in straight sets in Valencia.

The clash promised to be one of the matches of the round as Verdasco faced the former top ten player, who is on his way back to his best form after suffering with injury this year.

However it wasn't quite the exciting match that everyone hoped for as Simon handed third seed a beating, dropping just four games in the fifty seven minute encounter.

Verdasco has struggled for form since his excellent run on the clay earlier this season, he went on to crash out of Wimbledon in the first round and failed to win a match on the Asian tour  in the last few weeks.

The opening set was all about the Frenchman as he broke twice to quickly open up a 5-1 lead as errors and serving problems littered the Verdasco game.

After just twenty five minutes and Simon was one set to the good, Verdasco got just a single game on the board in that opening set.

The first six games of the second set went with serve and it looked like the Spaniard was going to make more of a contest of the set.

However it wasn't to be as Simon broke through in the seventh before holding his own serve to lead 5-2. Verdasco was left to serve to stay in the match but two double faults handed Simon match point - a chance that he didn't let pass.

With less than an hour on the clock Simon had completed an emphatic 6-1 6-3 win and will now face Nikolay Davydenko in the next round.

The Russian, who is still looking to bag a place at the ATP World Tour Finals; where he is defending champion, enjoyed a 7-6(7-0), 6-2 win over Juan Ignacio Chela.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw