ON A ROLL: Gilles Simon of France celebrates his second round win over Bernard Tomic of Australia at the Thailand Open in Bangkok yesterday. Simon beat Tomic 6-4, 7-5. (AFP)


AFP/Bangkok


Frenchman Gilles Simon celebrated winning the 300th match of his career yesterday after dominating Australian Bernard Tomic 6-4, 7-5 to reach the quarter-finals of the Thailand Open.
Simon, who flew to Asia immediately after defeating compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to win the Metz title at the weekend, admitted that he did not know that he was on the cusp of a personal milestone.
“I must be getting older, I want to get to 400 now,” joked the 28-year-old, who became the ninth Frenchman in the post-1968 Open era to win at least 300 matches in Tour play.
Elsewhere, Canadian third seed Milos Raonic needed more than two-and-a-half hours to overcome Australian Marinko Matosevic 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 6-4, hitting 21 aces on his way to a hard-fought win.
In the final set, Matosevic saved a slew of break-points before Raonic finally broke to earn victory. “It was a little bit frustrating,” Raonic said. “But he played well on a lot of those break points so I can’t always blame myself.”
The Canadian will meet Feliciano Lopez today, a month after beating the sixth-seeded Spaniard in the US Open third round.
Russian fifth seed Mikhail Youzhny took victory over Denis Istomin 6-3, 6-3 while Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun beat Czech eighth seed Lukas Rosol 6-3, 6-2.
Defending champion and second seed Richard Gasquet beat Slovak Lukas Lacko 6-3, 6-2 later in the day.
But the day belonged to Simon, who secured an early break, carrying that margin through the opening set, which he won in 43 minutes. In the second set, the French player earned the break for 6-5 as Tomic put a return wide. He closed out victory a game later, following another error from the Australian, after 79 minutes.
Simon, whose second child was born this month, said it took a big effort to get up for his noon start in the second round against Tomic after an opening-round bye.
“I’m still on European time, so it was a 7am start and a 3am wake up,” he said. “It was tough today, but I like the conditions here,” added the 2012 Bangkok finalist who won the event in 2009.
“I suppose that’s why I’ve been successful here most of the time. I was afraid of this match but I got through it, I’m happy about that, now I’ll try to recover as best as I can and be ready for tomorrow.”
Today, the world number 14 will face Dutchman Igor Sijsling, whom he defeated in their only previous meeting indoors in Metz three years ago.
Simon’s win was his second against Tomic, who he beat on grass last summer in an Eastbourne quarter-final.