Andreas Seppi
Andreas Seppi is an Italian former professional tennis player. 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.
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 speaks Italian and English fluently.He considered grass and indoor hard courts his favourite surfaces and was coached by Massimo Sartori. His nicknames are Andy and also Seppio, given to him by his coach.
Equipment and sponsoring
Seppi used Pro Kennex tennis racquets and wore Fila gear.Tennis career
2001–2003: Professional and ATP debut
Seppi turned pro in 2001, playing exclusively on the ATP Futures 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.
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. 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
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, 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.Seppi won his second ATP title in 2012 at Belgrade defeating David Nalbandian in the semi-finals and Benoît Paire in the final.
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. 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.
He won his third title at the 2012 Kremlin Cup defeating Thomaz Bellucci.
Seppi finished the year 2012 ranked World No. 23 in singles, his best year-end ranking in his career.
2013: Top 20 debut and career-high ranking
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, the Australian pairing of Tomic and Ashleigh Barty and the German pairing of Haas and Tatjana Malek. 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 and Schiavone has never beaten Ivanovic in professional singles matches.At the Sydney International the following week, Seppi reached the semifinals as the third seed, losing to eventual champion Tomic.
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.
Mixed results followed the Australian Open, with a quarterfinal loss in Dubai to eventual champion Djokovic and a fourth-round loss in Miami to Andy Murray, who went on to win the tournament.
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. In the Australian Open, he beat Lleyton Hewitt in five sets but lost to Donald Young in the second round.At the Rotterdam Open, he was defeated by Tomáš Berdych in the first round. He then lost to Michaël Llodra in Marseille. Seppi did manage to find some form in Dubai, reaching the second round by beating Florian Mayer coming from 3–0 down in the third set. The match ended 4–6, 6–1, 7–5. He was then defeated by Philipp Kohlschreiber. He reached the third rounds of the Indian Wells and the Miami Masters losing to Stan Wawrinka and David Ferrer respectively. At the 2014 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters Seppi defeated no.13 seed Mikhail Youzhny and Pablo Andújar but lost to Rafael Nadal in the third round.
2015: Win over Federer, Maiden ATP 500 final
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. Seppi was defeated in the next round by Nick Kyrgios in five sets, despite having a match point in the fourth set.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.
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.
2016: Maiden doubles title, decline in rankings
He started off with a decent result in the 2016 Australian Open, as the 28th seed he managed to get to the third round before losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. He had two disappointing results in the 2016 Indian Wells Masters & the 2016 Miami Open, In the 2016 Indian Wells Masters he lost to 9th seed John Isner and in the 2016 Miami Open he lost to 27th seed Alexandr Dolgopolov. In the Italian Open he lost to Richard Gasquet in the second round. Seppi crashed out of the 2016 French Open in the first round to Ernest Gulbis. In 2016 Wimbledon Championships, Seppi smashed Guillermo García López in straight sets before losing to eventual finalist Milos Raonic in the second round. In the US Open, Seppi beat Frenchman Stéphane Robert before falling to 4 seed Rafa Nadal.Seppi finished the year ranked World No. 87 in singles.