Lawn Tennis
Roger Federer Suffers Shock Upset In Toronto
By Ken Miller, Lawn Tennis Correspondent, Posted: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:32pm CST USA
Roger Federer Suffers Shock Upset In Toronto, Giles Simon
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
TORONTO (lawntennismag.com)—World number one Roger Federer of Switzerland was handed a rare defeat Wednesday night at the Rogers Cup in the second round as he lost to 22nd ranked Giles Simon of France 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.

“I was playing like I was in a dream,” Simon said. “I just saw the ball and hit it as hard as possible.”

Federer had won the tournament, held in Toronto


“I was playing like I was in a dream,” Simon said. “I just saw the ball and hit it as hard as possible.”

in 2004 and 2006 and was playing his first match since losing an epic Wimbledon final to world number two Rafael Nadal of Spain. Simon had never faced Federer before.

The 23 year old Simon defeated Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 6-4, 6-4 last week in the Indianapolis final to take his 2nd ATP Tour title of 2008. At Indianapolis Simon also defeated Tommy Haas of Germany and Sam Querrey of the USA.

Other than an early exit, for Federer the loss meant that he could this summer lose the world number one ranking that he has held for 234 consecutive weeks since February 2004.

“The hard court season just started so it is not the end of the world but I wish I could have started better,” Federer said. “I like this surface, I like this tournament, I have done well in the past here so it definitely hurts."

“I have to regroup and look forward. The bigger picture is the Olympic Games and the U.S. Open and those are the places I really want to win so I have to make sure I am ready for that.”

Should Nadal win this week at Toronto and then also win Cincinnati next week with another early exist from Federer, Nadal would have a good chance to ascend into the top ATP Tour ranking.

Federer had won Wimbledon the last five years before Nadal took his first Wimbledon title earlier this month.

Simon turned professional in 2002 and last year finished as just the third best Frenchman behind Richard Gasquet and Paul-Henri Mathieu. Last year Simon also claimed his first ATP Tour title at the Marseille Open at Marseille, France defeating Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6–4, 7–6(7-3).

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