Andreas Seppi

Andreas Seppi
Country Italy
Residence Kaltern an der Weinstraße, Italy
Born 21 February 1984 (1984-02-21) (age 28)
Bolzano, Italy
Height 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Turned pro 2002
Plays Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money $3,438,904
Singles
Career record 166–194
Career titles 1
Highest ranking No. 27 (7 July 2008)
Current ranking No. 38 (14 November 2011)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open 2R (2007, 2008, 2011)
French Open 2R (2009, 2010, 2011)
Wimbledon 3R (2008, 2009)
US Open 3R (2008)
Doubles
Career record 53–98
Career titles 0
Highest ranking No. 76 (10 January 2011)
Current ranking No. 88 (7 February 2011)
Last updated on: 7 February 2011.

Andreas Seppi (born 21 February 1984 in Bolzano, Italy) is a professional tennis player from South Tyrol, northern Italy, who turned professional in 2000. He considers clay and hard courts his favourite surfaces.[1] and is coached by Massimo Sartori.[1] His career high was no. 27, achieved on 7 July 2008.

Contents

Tennis career

Seppi turned pro in 2000, playing exclusively on the ATP Futures and ATP Challenger Series circuit for three season. He won his first Futures event in 2003, in Munich, Germany, defeating Lars Übel. In addition, he qualified for his first two ATP events in Kitzbühel and Bucharest, where he was defeated by Olivier Mutis and José Acasuso, respectively.

In 2004, Seppi made his Davis Cup debut against Georgia, losing to Irakli Labadze in five sets. In Kitzbühel, Seppi failed to convert 10 match points against Rainer Schüttler in a second-round loss. A few weeks later, Seppi was able to gain revenge for this loss. In his Grand Slam debut as a qualifer, he defeated Schüttler, coming from two sets to love down.[2] Seppi finished the 2005 season in the top 100 for the first time. He qualified for four ATP Masters Series events, with his best performance in Hamburg, where he reached the quarterfinals. In the Davis Cup, Seppi came back from two sets to love down and defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero, 5–7, 3–6, 6–0, 6–3, 6–2, before losing to Rafael Nadal in the reverse singles. After this performance, he reached his first ATP Tour semifinal in Palermo, where he defeated defending champion Tomáš Berdych, before falling to Igor Andreev.

In 2006, Seppi made semifinals on hard courts in Sydney and grass in Nottingham, showing that he was able to perform well on other surfaces besides clay. Seppi ended the streak of four consecutive Sydney titles for Lleyton Hewitt and, in the process, saved two match points. Seppi lost against Andre Agassi in his last appearance at Wimbledon.

At the 2007 Australian Open, Seppi defeated American Bobby Reynolds in five sets, after saving a match point. The match was scheduled for the afternoon, but was put back due to the heat.[3] This match finished at 3:34 am, which was at the time the latest time for a match to be completed until it was surpassed by the Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis match at the 2008 Australian Open.

Seppi made the final of the Sunrise Challenger, defeating Gustavo Kuerten, Juan Martín del Potro, and Nicolás Massú, and then losing to Gaël Monfils. After Sunrise, Seppi struggled with his ranking outside the top 100. He surprisingly made his first ATP Tour final in Gstaad, where he defeated Stefan Koubek and Igor Andreev both in third-set tiebreakers. Seppi led 5–3 in the third set and had the opportunity to serve for the championship but failed to do so losing to Paul-Henri Mathieu 6–7, 6–4, 7–5. Seppi made his first semi final indoors in Vienna defeating two time defending champion Ivan Ljubičić along the way to complete the feat of at least making the semi finals of events played on clay, hardcourt, grass and indoors, eventually finishing in the top 80 for the third consecutive year.

The 2008 season Seppi won his first Challenger title at Bergamo where he defeated Julien Benneteau 2–6, 6–2, 7–5 in the final for the loss of 1 set in the tournament. He made the quarter-finals of the indoor event in Rotterdam where he defeated Lleyton Hewitt 3–6, 7–6, 7–6 in the process saving a match point. Then he scored his biggest win over the then world number 2 Rafael Nadal 3–6, 6–3, 6–4 before losing to Robin Söderling. Seppi qualified for the semi-finals of the Hamburg Masters, this was the first time he reached that stage of the Masters Series events, he defeated Richard Gasquet, Juan Mónaco and Nicolas Kiefer in a match where he led 6–3, 5–3 before winning 6–3, 5–7, 7–5 which included Seppi winning the last 4 games and went for 3 hours and 13 minutes in duration,[4] before losing to Roger Federer in the semi-finals.

In 2009 Seppi made the semi finals in Belgrade and in Umag both on clay, while winning his second Challenger title in San Marino defeating countryman Potito Starace in the final. Seppi found success at the challenger level in 2010 where he won his third challenger title at Kitzbühel accounting for Victor Crivoi in the final.

For the second time Seppi won the Challenger title at Bergamo in 2011 and later in the year followed that victory with his first ATP title in 2011 at Eastbourne which came on grass defeating Janko Tipsarevic in the final after the Serbian retired at 5–3 down in the 3rd set. Earlier in the day Seppi played Igor Kunitsyn in the semi final which he also won in 3 sets.

Personal

Seppi speaks Italian, German and English. He supports AC Milan and his nicknames are Andy and also Seppio, given to him by his coach.[1] His good friend, WTA player Karin Knapp lives in the same town as Seppi.[5] When asked how he managed to lose in the 2007 Kitzbühel quarter-finals to good friend Potito Starace after being 6–1, 5–3 ahead, he answered "Easy: if I beat him who would have supplied me with movies for the whole season?".

In Rotterdam 2008, the crowd sang Happy Birthday to Seppi, after he defeated Rafael Nadal and when asked by the on court interviewer after being drawn to play Lleyton Hewitt and then Rafael Nadal whether he expected reach quarter-finals, Seppi answered 'that he had his flight booked for Wednesday".[6]

ATP Career Finals

Singles: 2 (1–1)

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam tournaments(0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–0)
ATP World Tour 250 Series (1–1)
Titles by Surface
Hard (0–0)
Clay (0–1)
Grass (1–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
Runner-up 1. September 13, 2007 Gstaad, Switzerland Clay Paul-Henri Mathieu 7–6(7–1), 4–6, 5–7
Winner 1. June 18, 2011 Eastbourne, United Kingdom Grass Janko Tipsarević 7–6(7–5), 3–6, 5–3, ret.

Doubles: 5 (0–5)

Legend ( Doubles)
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–1)
ATP World Tour 250 Series (0–4)
Titles by Surface
Hard (0–3)
Clay (0–1)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Partner Opponent in the final Score in the final
Runner-up 1. 4 February 2006 Zagreb, Croatia Hard (i) Davide Sanguinetti Jaroslav Levinský
Michal Mertinák
6–7(7–9), 1–6
Runner-up 2. 18 July 2010 Båstad, Sweden Clay Simone Vagnozzi Robert Lindstedt
Horia Tecau
4–6, 5–7
Runner-up 3. 10 October 2010 Tokyo, Japan Hard Dmitry Tursunov Eric Butorac
Jean-Julien Rojer
3–6, 2–6
Runner-up 4. 7 January 2011 Doha, Qatar Hard Daniele Bracciali Rafael Nadal
Marc Lopez
3–6, 6–7(4–7)
Runner-up 5. June 16, 2011 Eastbourne, United Kingdom Grass Grigor Dimitrov Jonathan Erlich
Andy Ram
3–6, 3–6

Challengers and futures (6)

Challengers (5)
Futures (1)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score
1. 20 January 2003 Munich Carpet Lars Übel 6–4, 7–5
2. 4 February 2008 Bergamo Indoor Hard Julien Benneteau 2–6, 6–2, 7–5
3. 3 August 2009 San Marino Clay Potito Starace 7–6(7–4), 2–6, 6–4
4. 2 August 2010 Kitzbühel Clay Victor Crivoi 6–2, 6–1
5. 7 February 2011 Bergamo Indoor Hard Gilles Muller 3–6, 6–3, 6–4
5. 9 October 2011 Mons Hard Julien Benneteau 2–6, 6–3, 7–6(7–4)

Singles Performance Timeline

Tournament 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 W–L
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open LQ LQ 1R 2R 2R 1R 1R 2R 3–6
French Open LQ LQ 1R 1R 1R 2R 2R 2R 3–6
Wimbledon LQ 1R 2R 2R 3R 3R 2R 2R 8–7
US Open LQ 2R 1R 1R 1R 3R 1R 1R 1R 3–8
Win–Loss 0–0 1–1 0–2 1–4 2–4 5–4 3–4 2–4 3–4 17–27
ATP Masters Series
Indian Wells LQ 1R 2R 2R 2R 2R 1R 4–6
Miami 1R 1R 1R 2R 2R 1R 2R 3–7
Monte Carlo 2R 2R 2R 2R 2R 2R A 6–6
Rome LQ 1R 2R 1R LQ 2R 2R 2R 1R 4–7
Madrid LQ LQ LQ 1R 3R 1R A 2–3
Canada LQ LQ 1R 1R 0–2
Cincinnati LQ 1R LQ 3R 2R 1R 3–4
Shanghai Not Held Not ATP Masters Series 3R A 2–1
Paris 1R 1R 2R 1R 2R LQ 3R 4–6
Hamburg 1R QF 2R LQ SF NM1 8–4
Career Statistics
Titles-Finals 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–1 0–0 0–0 0–0 1–0 1–1
Year End Ranking 240 146 68 74 50 35 49 52 38

References

External links