Now 36-years old, Simon was once ranked as high as six in the world, and has won 14 ATP titles in his career, but has dropped down now to 68, and was heavily beaten by Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round of the Australian Open.
He also lost in the first round of the Montpellier Open last week.
Simon has said that his heart was just not in it right now and that he needed to take a break to preserve himself mentally.
He is by no means the first sportsman recently to take a break for mental health reasons.
South Africa cricket captain Quentin de Kock has missed a domestic T20 series on the advice of doctors, who told him it would be better for both his physical and mental health if he were to have a few weeks off as well.
Meanwhile, a number of England players have been allowed to fly home from their tour of India to spend time at home with their families.
Whilst depression and sport are by no means new bedfellows, there is now a greater awareness and understanding of the issue, and it is no longer the great taboo not to be spoken about.
However, the unique circumstances of the past year have exacerbated the problem for some sportsmen and women. International sport resumed after the lockdown but in unique conditions, with players and support staff forced to enter bio-secure bubbles, in which they are isolated from friends and families for weeks or, in some cases, months, on end.
And after the experience of the Australian Open, where the worlds top tennis players were forced to spend two weeks in quarantine, in some instances kept virtual prisoners for 14 days in their hotel rooms, world number one Novak Djokovic publicly questioned how many of his fellow professionals would be prepared to put up with that again.
Simon may not be the only one considering stepping down for a while.