Thank You, Gillou! 10 of Gilles Simon’s most impressive career stats

He was still reaching milestones until the very end—he rallied from 6-4, 5-3 down to defeat Andy Murray in the first round, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, for the 300th hard-court win of his career, and then battled for over three hours to defeat Taylor Fritz in the second round, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, for the 504th overall win of his career, passing Feliciano Lopez for ninth-most among active men’s players.

But it had to come to an end eventually: Gilles Simon played the 898th and final match of his 20-year professional career in front of his home crowd in Paris on Thursday, falling to Felix Auger-Aliassime, 6-1, 6-3, in the third round of the Masters 1000 event.

And so, one of the most successful French players in ATP history calls it a career—here are 10 of his most impressive career stats:

With 504, he has the third-most career wins for a Frenchman in the Open Era. Only Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils have more.

MOST CAREER WINS BY A FRENCHMAN IN OPEN ERA (tour-level)
588: Richard Gasquet
525: Gael Monfils
504: Gilles Simon
482: Yannick Noah
470: Fabrice Santoro
467: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
389: Cedric Pioline
378: Guy Forget
377: Henri Leconte
341: Sebastien Grosjean

Simon recorded his 500th career win in front of his home fans at Roland Garros this year, a 7-5, 6-1, 7-6 (6) second-round victory over American Steve Johnson. He had just taken out a No. 18-ranked Pablo Carreno Busta in five sets in the first round.

“Ah, 500,” Simon told ATPTour.com that day.

“It’s a nice number that I managed to reach it. I would have survived if I didn’t, of course, but yeah, it’s one more achievement. To have 500 wins on the tour, I am quite happy.”

He was one of only 10 active men’s players with 500 or more wins in their career. Now that he’s retired, that club of 10 is now a club of nine: Nadal (1,066), Djokovic (1,024), Murray (717), Gasquet (588), Marin Cilic (580), Fernando Verdasco (559), Stan Wawrinka (541), Monfils (525) and Feliciano Lopez (503).

He beat Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal while they were No. 1—in the same season, and both from a set down. Both wins came at Masters 1000s in 2008, with Simon taking out Federer in the second round in Canada, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, and Nadal in the semifinals of Madrid, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (6), when it was held on indoor hard courts.

The Frenchman’s giant-killing didn’t end there that year—earlier in the year he took out a No. 3-ranked Djokovic in Marseille, just a few weeks after the future No. 1 captured his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, and he upset a No. 2-ranked Federer at the ATP Finals in Shanghai at the end of the year, as well.

He’s one of only 12 Frenchmen ever to reach the Top 10 on the ATP rankings. Simon reached a career-high of No. 6 on January 5th, 2009, tying him for seventh-highest-ranked Frenchman in the history of ATP rankings, which began in 1973.

HIGHEST-RANKED FRENCHMEN IN ATP RANKINGS HISTORY:
No. 3 Yannick Noah [set on July 7, 1986]
No. 4 Guy Forget [set on March 25, 1991]
No. 4 Sebastien Grosjean [set on October 28, 2002]
No. 5 Henri Leconte [set on September 22, 1986]
No. 5 Cedric Pioline [set on May 8, 2000]
No. 5 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [set on February 27, 2012]
No. 6 Gilles Simon [set on January 5, 2009]
No. 6 Gael Monfils [set on November 7, 2016]
No. 7 Richard Gasquet [set on July 9, 2007]
No. 10 Thierry Tulasne [set on August 4, 1986]
No. 10 Arnaud Clement [set on April 2, 2001]
No. 10 Lucas Pouille [set on March 19, 2018]

With 34, he was tied for 10th-most Top 10 wins among active men. He trailed only Djokovic (234), Nadal (185), Murray (105), Wawrinka (60), Alexander Zverev (42), Kei Nishikori (40), Lopez (39), Cilic (36) and Gasquet (35), and tied with Monfils (34).

With $16 million in career prize money, he’s one of only four Frenchmen to earn $15 million or more in career prize money in ATP history. Only Tsonga ($22.4 million), Monfils ($20.9 million) and Gasquet ($19.8 million) have earned more.

He won 14 career ATP titles. His biggest one was an ATP 500 title on clay in Hamburg in 2011, the other 13 all coming at ATP 250s (including five on home soil in France, on indoor hard courts).

He reached another eight ATP finals, including two Masters 1000 finals. He was a runner-up at Madrid in 2008 (falling to Murray in the final) and Shanghai in 2014 (falling to Federer in the final).

He was a two-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist. His best results at the Grand Slams were final eight appearances at the Australian Open in 2009 (falling to Nadal) and Wimbledon in 2015 (falling to Federer). He reached the second week at majors a total of 11 times in his career, including at least twice at every major.

He finished one year in the Top 10 and another five years in the Top 20. He finished his breakthrough 2008 season at No. 7, and his other five Top 20 finishes came in 2009 (No. 15), 2011 (No. 12), 2012 (No. 16), 2013 (No. 19) and 2015 (No. 15).

“I did my utmost as best as I could,” Simon told ATPTour.com at Roland Garros this year. “Could I have done better? Yes. Could it have been less good? Of course, yes, as well. I tried to do my best all the time. Did I manage to be proud? Yes, sometimes. That’s part and parcel of a tennis career. Year after year, of course, you actually live every kind of feeling. Sometimes you lead and you lose. Sometimes you are down and you end up winning. It’s not a matter of the biggest tournament won or something. After 17 years, I have done my best. I gave everything I had.”