Cologne 2: Denis Shapovalov vs Gilles Simon Preview, Head-to-Head and Prediction for Bett1Hulks Championships

Shapovalov is seeded third in the tournament and now faces an opponent he recently defeated and whose glory days seem to be behind him. He looks to be in great form in spite of losing at the semis of the St. Petersburg Open to the eventual winner of the tournament, Andrey Rublev. That match was an intense three-setter in which Rublev turned out to be the superior player.

He will try to replicate his good performances at Cologne as he still has slim chances of making it to the ATP Finals. If he manages to pull off a great display of tennis and play well in Cologne and the Paris Masters, he might just make it to the prestigious season-ending event. In spite of his mixed results, he seems to be performing pretty consistently. His 2020 season was good, with him managing to reach the quarterfinals of the US Open and the semifinals of the St. Petersburg and Italian Open. He received a bye into the second round of this tournament because of his seeding.

On the other hand, 35-year-old Gilles Simon has gone past his peak, with his performances dipping in quality. He has had a mediocre 2020 season, with an 8-9 win-loss record. His best result this year was a semifinals appearance at the Marseille Open. His Grand Slam record was also poor, with two second-round appearances and one first-round exit.

In this tournament, he won his first round match in straight sets against Australian Jordan Thompson.

This will be the third meeting between the two players, with Shapovalov winning the last two meetings. Their most recent face-off was in the 2020 French Open, just last month in which the Canadian asserted his dominance by winning the match in four sets.

Their other meeting came in the 2019 Paris Masters which Shapovalov won as Simon retired due to an injury. Thus, the head-to-head stands at 2-0 to Shapovalov.