Evergreen Santoro sees off Simon
Evergreen Santoro sees off Simon 
From correspondents in Dubai, UAE
Former Australian Captain March 01, 2007
FABRICE Santoro, who caused a huge upset when he won the Dubai Open five years ago, has produced a lesser one when by reaching the quarter-finals at the age of 34.
The Tahiti-born, Geneva-based Frenchman did that with an unexpectedly one-sided 6-4 6-2 win over his compatriot, Gilles Simon, an opponent who gained the first ATP Tour title of his career a fortnight ago at Marseille.
But in hot conditions on the centre court, the 22-year-old Simon was able to do himself justice only for the first five games and for the last two.
In between, he lost nine games out of ten, to slip from 3-2 ahead to 5-0 down in the second set, as Santoro plied his familiar mixtures of slice from the baseline and quick-eyed attacks at the net.
“I was surprised at what happened,'’ said Santoro, once a top 20 player but who these days spends most of his time outside the top 50.
“It was a big surprise for me. I think we had a difficult start, both of us. Two days ago it was perfect conditions but now it was hot and the ball was flying and we had trouble to keep the ball in play.
“But when I got into the match I played better, and when I broke him (for 4-3) he went down quite a bit because he was probably nervous, and he knew I was holding my serve.'’
Santoro’s quick win follows his conquest of Tommy Robredo, the No.4 seed from Spain, on Monday, and once again he gave the impression of being inspired by his return to the venue where in 2002 he appeared for the final in a wheelchair, not intending to play, and climbed out of it to win the title.
Santoro’s game has evolved since then, and he risks many more ventures to the net, though he will may find it more difficult to make that effective when he plays Robin Soderling, the in-form Swede, who followed his conquest of David Ferrer by beating Dominik Hrbaty, the world No.23 from Slovakia, 6-3 7-5.
Agence France-Presse