Wimbledon.com focuses on Frenchman Gilles Simon's move back into the upper echelons of the men's rankings...

“Tennis is getting older.” There’s no denying the truth of this statement, but do we have to say it in exactly that way? It doesn’t sound all that hopeful for the future. The sport might benefit from a rebranding when it comes to this topic: Maybe we should say instead that tennis is...ripening as it ages.

The word makes sense when we’re talking about the top player’s games. Serena Williams and Stan Wawrinka, both in their 30s, won four major titles this year between them; 34-year-old Roger Federer reached the finals of two others; Flavia Pennetta won her first Slam at 33 and promptly retired. And watching Novak Djokovic, at the height of his powers, nearly win all four, it was easy to forget that his age, 28, was once considered the twilight of a player’s career. At the moment, there are only two men in the ATP’s Top 13 who are younger than the world No. 1. Djokovic’s harvest could go on for a long time.

But the trend goes deeper than the game’s upper crust, especially on the men’s side. That was most evident to me when I scanned the rankings this weekend and noticed something startling: Gilles Simon is in the Top 10. At first I thought that, despite the fact that he’s 30 years old and turned pro in 2002, this must have been the first time he had ever joined that elite club. Then, slowly, I recalled that there was a time, far back in formative days of the Golden Era—it turned out to be 2006—when this artful counterpuncher finessed himself all the way up to No. 6.

It seems that Simon has been around so long, and altered himself so little over the years, that we’ve forgotten he ever had a prime; with him, the only thing that ever seems to change is the length of his beard. By now he’s a tour fixture: He’s steadily second tier, usually ranked between 10 and 20, a mid-round loser at the majors, a guy who rarely beats the Big 4—he’s 6-34 against them—but who’s good for one minor title a year. Mostly, Simon seems to love nothing more than turning his matches into to five-set marathons whenever he has the opportunity, and driving opponents and tournament schedulers crazy in the process.

At first glance, what stands out most about Simon is his build. In an era when we like to say that “the game is more physical than ever,” he proves that it still doesn’t need to be. At 6’0 and 154 pounds, the Frenchman has always been borderline frail, with none of the musculature that we associate with today’s men’s game. His bone-thin calves seem ready to snap under the strain of a long point. Yet, as I wrote above, the longer he can make a match go, the happier he seems to be.

For all of Simon’s skill in compensating for his size, though, he’s not popular among the game’s cognoscenti. This is partly because, when he was elected to the ATP Player Council in 2012, he came out against equal pay for men and women at the Grand Slams. He quickly qualified that statement, and he hasn’t pursued the issue since; but if Simon has any notoriety, its for this stance rather than for anything he has done as a player. Even on court, though, Simon doesn’t inspire the same sort of love or respect as other pros, such as David Ferrer or Agnieszka Radwanska, who “make the most of what they have.”

Two years ago at the Australian Open, Simon beat Gael Monfils in five sets, and nearly five hours. The crowd in Hisense Arena gave the two players a standing ovation, and afterward Simon said, “I was almost dying after the second set. I just tried to give my maximum, and I think I managed to give it.” Yet rather than being lauded, Simon’s play was widely lambasted on Twitter.

This may be because Simon doesn’t look, or sound, as if he’s working as hard as Ferrer—”Gillou,” Simon’s nickname, isn’t quite as intimidating as Ferrer’s “Little Beast.” Simons also doesn’t have the this-is-just-crazy-enough-to-work shot-selection genius of Radwanska, and he’s not an old-school attacker who will warm the heart of the game’s ex-players, the way his retired countryman Michael Llodra did. Simon is a sort of poor man’s Andy Murray (very poor, if you go by their head to head; he’s 2-13 against the Scot). He’s content to rally passively much of the time. His easy, smooth, compact strokes don’t look “gritty.” And he doesn’t punctuate every second winner with a fist-pump.

But Simon is not a pusher or a garden-variety baseliner. Like many French players, he brings a full variety of shots and a unique and artistic flair to the court. Simon’s game isn’t about elegance or athleticism; it’s about another old-fashioned element of the sport: Timing. Simon is an expert at absorption. With little backswing, and seemingly little physical exertion, he move the ball and his opponent from corner to corner. He has, as they say, tennis DNA.

Simon’s small step back into the Top 10 is hardly an earth-shattering achievement. He’s done it with a solid-but-not-spectacular 37-20 record in 2015, and he has just one-eighth the number of ranking points as Djokovic. It’s also not the best news for the ATP; in the tour’s eyes, the newest member of the Top 10 would ideally be 20 years old, not 30. But like so many of his generation—perhaps the sport’s greatest—Simon’s game has experienced a late ripening. It’s worth enjoying, or at least respecting, while it lasts.