Frenchman Gilles Simon advanced to his first ATP World Tour Finals this year after defeating Feliciano Lopez in straight sets 6-2 7(7)-6(1) at the Shanghai Rolex Masters in China on Saturday afternoon.

World No. 29 Simon broke the Spaniard twice in the first set but Lopez went all out in the second set to take it into a tie-break.

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Simon, 29, converted seven straight games in the tie-break 7-1 to end the set and the match in an hour and 20 minutes.

The Nice native connected 27 winners and committed only nine unforced errors in the match.

This is Simon's second Masters 1000 finals in his career with the previous one six years ago in Madrid when he lost to Britain's No. 1 Andy Murray in two straight sets.

Simon now awaits the winner of the matchup between defending champion Novak Djokovic and 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer scheduled to take play Saturday evening.

With the win over Lopez plus upsetting fourth seeded Stan Wawrinka in the second round and defeating sixth seeded Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals, Simon's ATP ranking will significantly increase.

Besides Wawrinka and Berdych, Simon also defeated Spaniard David Ferrer at the third round of the recent U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows New York. He then lost in the fourth round to eventual champion Marin Cilic of Croatia.

In last week's Japan Open, Simon reached the semifinals before losing to eventual runner-up Milos Raonic of Canada. His last ATP tournament title was on September of last year at the Moselle Open in Metz, France where he defeated fellow compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in two straight sets.

The 33-year-old Spaniard on the other hand had an amazing tournament, defeating second seeded Rafael Nadal in the second round and 13^th seeded John Isner of the United States in the third round.