Andreas Seppi

Andreas Seppi
Andreas Seppi
Country Italy Italy
Residence Kaltern an der Weinstraße, Italy
Date of birth 21 February 1984 (1984-02-21) (age 26)
Place of birth Bolzano, Italy
Height 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight 75 kg (170 lb; 11.8 st)
Turned pro 2002
Plays Right-handed; two-handed backhand
Career prize money $2,199,851
Singles
Career record 115–135
Career titles 0
Highest ranking No. 27 (7 July 2008)
Current ranking No. 56 (30 August 2010)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open 2nd (2007, 2008)
French Open 2nd (2009, 2010)
Wimbledon 3rd (2008, 2009)
US Open 3rd (2008)
Doubles
Career record 27–63
Career titles 0
Highest ranking No. 78 (6 July 2009)
Last updated on: 3 August 2009.

Andreas Seppi (born 21 February 1984 in Bolzano, Italy) is a professional tennis player from the province of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol-Italy, who turned professional in 2000. He considers clay and hardcourts his favourite surfaces [1] and is coached by Massimo Sartori.[1] His career high was #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, 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.

2004 Seppi made his Davis Cup debut against Georgia losing to Irakli Labadze in 5 sets. In Kitzbühel Seppi failed to convert 10 match points against Rainer Schüttler in a second round loss, then a few weeks later Seppi was able to gain revenge for this loss. In his Grand Slam debut as a qualifer he defeated Schüttler from 2 sets to 0 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 quarter finals. In Davis Cup Seppi came back from 2 sets to 0 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 semi final in Palermo where he defeated defending champion Tomáš Berdych, before falling to Igor Andreev.

In 2006 Seppi made semi finals on the hardcourts in Sydney and the grass in Nottingham showing that he was able to perform well on other surfaces besides clay. Seppi ended the streak of 4 consecutive Sydney titles for Lleyton Hewitt and in the process saved 2 match points. Seppi lost against Andre Agassi in his last tournament appearance at Wimbledon.

At the 2007 Australian Open Seppi defeated American Bobby Reynolds in 5 sets after saving a match point. The match was scheduled for the afternoon, but was put back due to the heat rule where play could not commence if the temperature was over 39 degrees Celsius [3].This match finished at 3.34am 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 losing to Gaël Monfils. After Sunrise Seppi had been struggling with poor form with his ranking outside of the top 100, he surprisingly made his ATP Tour final in Gstaad where he defeated Stefan Koubek and Igor Andreev both in 3rd set tiebreakers and it was his first victory over Andreev. Seppi lead 5-3 in the 3rd set and had the opportunity to serve for the championship but failed to do so losing to Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-7(1) 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.

Andreas Seppi at 2008 US Open

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(4) 7-6 (4) 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.

Personal

Seppi speaks German, Italian and English. He supports AC Milan and his nickname is 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]

Singles Titles (3)

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (0)
Challengers (3)
Futures (1)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score
1. 20 January 2003 GermanyMunich Carpet Germany Lars Übel 6–4 7–5
2. 4 February 2008 ItalyBergamo Indoor Hard France Julien Benneteau 2–6 6–2 7–5
3. 9 August 2009 San MarinoSan Marino Clay Italy Potito Starace 7–6(4) 2–6 6–4
3. 1 August 2010 Austria Kitzbühel Clay Romania Victor Crivoi 6-2 6-1

Singles Finalist (3)

No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score
1. 7 July 2003 GermanyOberstaufen Clay Argentina Martín Vassallo Argüello 6–1 6–4
2. 12 March 2007 United StatesSunrise Clay France Gaël Monfils 6–3 1–6 6–1
3. 13 September 2007 SwitzerlandGstaad Clay France Paul-Henri Mathieu 6–7(1) 6–4 7–5

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Career win-loss
Australian Open A A A A LQ LQ 1R 2R 2R 1R 1R 2–5
French Open A A A A LQ LQ 1R 1R 1R 2R 2R 2–5
Wimbledon A A A A LQ 1R 2R 2R 3R 3R 2R 7–6
U.S. Open A A A LQ 2R 1R 1R 1R 3R 1R 3–6
Grand Slam Win-Loss 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-1 0-2 1-4 2-4 5-4 3-4 2-3 14-22
Indian Wells A A A A A LQ 1R 2R 2R 2R 2R 4–5
Miami A A A A A 1R 1R 1R 2R 2R 1R 2–6
Monte Carlo A A A A A 2R 2R 2R 2R 2R 2R 6–6
Rome A A LQ LQ 1R 2R 1R LQ 2R 2R 2R 4–6
Madrid A A A A LQ LQ LQ A 1R 3R 1R 2–3
Montreal / Toronto A A A A A LQ LQ A 1R A 0–1
Cincinnati A A A A A LQ 1R LQ 3R 2R 3–3
Shanghai Not Held Not ATP Masters Series A 0–0
Paris A A A A A 1R 1R 2R 1R 2R 2–5
Hamburg A A A A 1R QF 2R LQ SF NM1 8–4
Total Titles 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Year End Ranking 1120 797 353 240 146 68 74 50 35 49 N/A

A = did not participate in the tournament.
NME = not Masters Series Event
LQ= lost in the qualifying draw

References

External links