TENNIS in DEPTH.

Giles Simon looked to be coming into form at just the right time as he captured his first ATP World Tour title of the season at the PTT Thailand Open Sunday. The Frenchman defeated fourth seed Viktor Troicki 7-5, 6-3 in the final of the ATP World Tour 250 hard-court tennis tournament in Bangkok.

As champion, Simon received 250 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking points, boosting his chances of qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Just three places remain for the eight-man season finale, to be held at the O2 Arena in London, 22-29 November.

Simon had been the only player in the Top 10 of the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings to be without an ATP World Tour title this season coming into his debut appearance in Bangkok.

“It feels really good because it’s never easy to win a tournament, even when you’re one of the top seeds at the tournament,” said Simon. “I had four good matches to play, I won it and I guess it’s very nice because it’s the first one of the season.

“It was really nice (to play in Bangkok for the first time). The people here are amazing. The crowd was cheering for me in every match. I think that if I manage to win here the first time I come it’s because I was feeling really good because of them.”

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