Andreas Seppi (born 21 February 1984) is an Italian former professional tennis player.[2] He reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 18 on 28 January 2013. He became the first Italian to win a title on all three surfaces.[3]
Personal life
Seppi hails from the northern Italian province of South Tyrol. He was born in Bolzano to Hugo, a truck driver, and Maria-Luise, who worked in a sports shop. He grew up with his sister Maria in a village near Bolzano, Kaltern an der Weinstraße. Apart from tennis, Andreas loves skiing and is an AC Milan fan, he is a native German speaker and also fluently speaks Italian and English.
He considers grass and indoor hard courts his favourite surfaces and is coached by Massimo Sartori.[2] He supports A.C. Milan and his nicknames are Andy and also Seppio, given to him by his coach.[4]
Seppi turned pro in 2001, playing exclusively on the ATPFutures and ATP Challenger Series circuit for three seasons. He won his first Futures event in 2003, in Munich, Germany, defeating Lars Uebel. In addition, he qualified for his first two ATP events at the 2003 Generali Open in Kitzbühel and in Bucharest, where he was defeated by Olivier Mutis and José Acasuso, respectively.
2004–2005: Major & top 100 debut, first Masters quarterfinal
In 2004, Seppi made his Davis Cup debut against Georgia, losing to Irakli Labadze in five sets. In the 2004 Generali Open in Kitzbühel, Seppi entered as a wildcard into the main draw. He 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 at the 2004 US Open as a qualifier, he defeated Schüttler, coming from two sets to love down.[6]
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 at the 2005 Hamburg Masters, where he reached the quarterfinals.
In the Davis Cup, Seppi came back from two sets to love down and defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero, 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.
2006–2007: Maiden ATP final
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.[7] 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 which started at 11:47pm and finished at 4:33am because of a two-hour delay.
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. 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.
2008–2010: Win over Nadal, Maiden Masters semifinal
Andreas Seppi at 2008 US Open.
In the 2008 season Seppi won his first Challenger title at Bergamo where he defeated Julien Benneteau in the final for the loss of 1 set in the tournament.
He made the quarterfinals of the indoor event in Rotterdam where he defeated Lleyton Hewitt in the process saving a match point. Then he scored his biggest win over the then world number 2 Rafael Nadal before losing to Robin Söderling.
Seppi made the semifinals of the 2008 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 which included Seppi winning the last 4 games and went for 3 hours and 13 minutes in duration,[8] before losing to Roger Federer in the semi-finals.
In 2009 Seppi made the semifinals 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.
2011–2012: First major fourth round, Maiden singles title, top 25 year-end ranking
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 Tipsarević 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.
En route the quarterfinals at the 2012 Rome Masters, he defeated Stanislas Wawrinka in the third round, having saved six match points in the process.
Seppi reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career at the 2012 French Open, eventually being defeated by world #1 Novak Djokovic in five sets having won the first two sets.[9] He defeated former World No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko in the first round and former top ten player Fernando Verdasco along the way.
He did not fare as well at the other Grand Slam tournaments, losing in the first round of the Australian and US Opens as well as Wimbledon.
Seppi started his 2013 season at the Hopman Cup, partnering 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone. Seppi lost all three of his singles rubbers, to Novak Djokovic, Bernard Tomic and Tommy Haas, but combined with Schiavone to win all their doubles rubbers, against the Serbian pairing of Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic,[10] the Australian pairing of Tomic and Ashleigh Barty[11] and the German pairing of Haas and Tatjana Malek.[12] The win over the Serbian pair of Djokovic and Ivanovic marked the first victory for Seppi and Schiavone over their respective opponents in any capacity, as Seppi has never defeated Djokovic[13] and Schiavone has never beaten Ivanovic[14] in professional singles matches.
At the Sydney International the following week, Seppi reached the semifinals as the third seed, losing to eventual champion Tomic.[15]
Seppi reached the fourth round of the 2013 Australian Open for the first time at this Major, a result which saw him enter the top 20 in singles for the first time at a career-high of World No. 18 on 28 January 2013.[16]
Mixed results followed the Australian Open, with a quarterfinal loss in Dubai to eventual champion Djokovic (extending the Italian's winless record to 0–11)[13][17] and a fourth-round loss in Miami to Andy Murray, who went on to win the tournament.[18]
2014: Three consecutive third rounds at Masters 1000
Seppi's 2014 season started poorly; losing every match at the Hopman Cup. In the Sydney International, Seppi was seeded 3rd. He was defeated by Marinko Matosevic in the second round (bye first round).[19] In the Australian Open, he beat Lleyton Hewitt in five sets but lost to Donald Young in the second round.
In January at the 2015 Australian Open, the unseeded Seppi caused a huge upset by beating second seed and four-time champion Roger Federer in the third round in four sets, after having lost to him in ten previous meetings.[20] Seppi was defeated in the next round by Nick Kyrgios in five sets, despite having a match point in the fourth set.[21]
Seppi's next tournament after the Australian Open was the 2015 PBZ Zagreb Indoors, where he was seeded fifth. There, he reached his first final since 2012 but lost to Spaniard Guillermo García López in straight sets.[22]
In June, at the 2015 Gerry Weber Open, Roger Federer took his revenge for the earlier in the year loss over Seppi by winning the title. This was the biggest title championship match thus far for Seppi that he lost in straight sets.
Seppi finished the year ranked World No. 87 in singles.
2017: Third Australian Open fourth round
Seppi's first ATP tournament of the year was the Australian Open. After beating Paul-Henri Mathieu in the first round, he upset No.14 Nick Kyrgios, despite losing the first 2 sets of the match. He then took down Steve Darcis in 4 sets before falling to Stan Wawrinka in a tight 3-set, 3-tiebreak match.[23] This matched Seppi's best result in singles at a Major.
He then played the Sofia Open where he lost to Steve Darcis in the Round of 16. He lost in the first round of a challenger in Bergamo. He then lost in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships to an in-form Fernando Verdasco.
2018: Fourth Australian Open fourth round
At the Australian Open 2018 he again reached the round of 16 for the fourth time in his career before losing to Kyle Edmund in 4 sets.
At the 2018 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, he entered in the qualifying draw, but lost in qualifying competition to Martin Kližan. Seppi then gained a spot in the main draw as lucky loser, where he defeated João Sousa in three sets at first round. In the second round, he upset No.3 seed, Alexander Zverev in straights sets. In the quarterfinals, he defeated Daniil Medvedev to reach the semifinals, but lost to the newly returned to the No.1 position in the ATP rankings, Roger Federer in straight sets, failing to get the spot in the final.
He won his tenth title at the 2021 Biella Challenger Indoor III becoming at the age of 37, the oldest champion from Italy in the history of the circuit. In addition, he joined Ivo Karlović, Tommy Robredo and Stéphane Robert as titlists aged 37 or older in the last four years. As a result, he moved back to the top 100.[25]
At the 2021 US Open he reached the second round after a five setter with a final set tiebreak 2–6, 7–5, 6–4, 2–6, 7–6(13) where he defeated Márton Fucsovics, saving 5 match points.[26] He then went on to reach the third round for the fourth time in his career defeating tenth seed Hubert Hurkacz in a stunning victory in four sets also with a final set tiebreak 2–6 6–4 6–4 7–6(6).[27]
2022: 66th consecutive major appearance, Retirement
He competed in his 66th consecutive major at the 2022 Australian Open. His streak of 66 straight major appearances is the second longest active and third longest of all time behind Lopez's streak of 79 and Verdasco's 67 appearances.
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
Only main-draw results in ATP Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Davis Cup/ATP Cup/Laver Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.
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