Tennis road to the US Open

US OPEN 2014

New York, U.S.A.

Gilles Simon capitalised on 52 unforced errors from David Ferrer on Sunday to upset the fourth seed 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the US Open third round.

Simon is through to the round of 16 for the second time at Flushing Meadows (also 2011 – l. to Isner), while Ferrer suffered his earliest US Open exit since 2009 (l. to Acasuso 2nd Rd). It was just Simon’s second win in seven meetings with Ferrer, who was a finalist at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 in Cincinnati two weeks ago (l. to Federer).

"I feel it was one of the hardest days for me on the court because it was hot and it was so humid, " said Simon. "I never sweated like this in the past ten years! To play David in these conditions is really demanding physically. At one point I was really tired. I felt it would be difficult. But then I had more energy and I felt he was in trouble. It's not very often that he and I are tired like this after just two hours."

The 29-year-old Simon will look to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final since the 2009 Australian Open (l. to Nadal) when he takes on Marin Cilic. Coming into the US Open, the Frenchman had not won back-to-back matches since Wimbledon, where he reached the third round (l. to Djokovic).

Cilic earned his spot in the fourth round with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Kevin Anderson, halting the South African’s run of reaching the round of 16 at every major championship this year. Coached by Goran Ivanisevic, Cilic clinched his 298th tour-level victory as he converted six of his 20 break points and took advantage of 53 unforced errors from Anderson.

However, if he is to reach his third US Open quarter-final, Cilic will need to overturn a 0-4 FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Simon, which includes a five-set defeat at the Australian Open in January. The Croatian reached the last eight at Flushing Meadows in 2009 (I. to del Potro) and 2012 (l. to Murray).