Gilles Simon is often referred to as “Simple Simon” due to his style of play that is far from flashy but rock-solid and almost always mistake-free. And after all of that complicated analysis of who could make the Masters Cup semifinals and how, it turned out to be, well, simple.

Simon defeated Radek Stepanek 6-1, 6-4 and Federer lost to Andy Murray 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-5 on Friday in Shanghai. That leaves Simon at 2-1, Federer at 1-2, and Stepanek 0-2 behind red group leader Murray. So Simon is in and Federer is out. No ties. No tiebreakers necessary. Simple.

Simon’s match, as already discussed, was irrelevant to the outcome of the red group, but his victory at least rendered the tie-breaking rules unnecessary and left fans with no need to try to understand why a certain player reached the semifinals. Simon made it simple, and his win over Stepanek was quite simple as well. Stepanek should get a break, however, since he was on vacation in Thailand and had no ideas whatsoever of participating in the prestigious year-end tournament. Of course, that was before Andy Roddick pulled out of the event with an ankle injury sustained during practice in between his first and second round-robin matches. After all the possible alternates ranked ahead of the Czech declined invitations to fill in, Stepanek jumped at the opportunity and literally borrowed Murray’s shoes and Novak Djokovic’s rackets in order to play.

The loans were not enough, however, to take down Simon, who had stunned Roger Federer in three sets on Monday. Simon went down to Murray in his second match, but he righted the ship by easing past Stepanek in two.

That quickly set the stage for Murray, who had already secured a place in the semifinals, and Federer, who needed a victory to advance and knock Simon out.

For a while, things looked good for the second-ranked Swiss. He broke Murray at 5-4 in the opener to take the first set 6-4. Federer even had a chance to finish the match off in straights as the second set featured four breaks of serve en route to a tiebreaker. Clutch play from the Scot and several scorching backhands leveled the match and forced a decisive third. Federer came out following treatment for his bad lower back and at first it did not cooperate. Murray sprinted to a 3-0 lead and a lame Federer appeared done. Yet somehow, Federer won the next four games to go up a break 4-3. In a final set that featured more twins and turns than you can possibly imagine, it was then Murray’s turn to regain momentum. The world No. 4 broke right back and held for 5-4, forcing Federer to serve to stay in the match-and the tournament. Federer did, but not before saving an incredible seven match points in dramatic fashion.

In the almost-inevitable end, however, Federer’s back ultimately failed him in the crucial moments. Murray won the final two games easily for the 7-5 win, finishing off Federer’s 2008 season and setting the stage for the semifinals….

…Which will pit Murray (red group winner) against Nikolay Davydenko (gold group runner-up) and Djokovic (gold group winner) against Simon (red group runner-up).