Andreas Seppi surrenders in the semifinals in Mouilleron-le-Captif. Next appointment in Vienna
Despite a good performance Andreas Seppi was eliminated on Saturday afternoon in the semifinal of the ATP Challenger in Mouilleron-le-Captif, a tournament with a prize pool of 66,640 euros. The 37-year-old from Caldara had to surrender to the Czech Jiri Vesely (ATP 84) in two sets for 6-4, 7-6 (1).
The South Tyrolean, number 93 in the world and fourth-seeded in the French draw, had eliminated in the previous rounds the Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, the Czech Tomas Machac and the local favorite Quentin Halys. Today Vesely stopped Seppi’s race. The Caldarese played today his 20th semifinal in a Challenger, on 14 occasions he also reached the final. Today he faced the number 2 of the seeding, the Czech Jiri Vesely, who occupies the 84th place in the world rankings. Seppi and the 28-year-old Czech have already met once in their careers, four years ago in Moscow. On that occasion, the South Tyrolean took advantage of his opponent’s retirement, against whom he was already 6-3, 4-1 ahead.
Today Vesely has taken revenge: in the opening game the Czech immediately breaks, then stretches to 2-0. Seppi wins shortly after the 2-2 rebreak, but on the other side he loses his service again. At 4-3 Seppi fails to transform into two break points and after 40 minutes of play he gives the first set to Vesely: 6-4.
The second half of the game is also very balanced. Until 6-6 both tennis players confirm their service. Then in the tiebreak Vesely immediately escapes at 4-0, thus paving the way for the conquest of the match. After just over an hour and a half, the blue had to surrender 7-1.
Despite this defeat, Seppi can console himself with € 3,250 in prize money and 33 ATP points. In the world ranking, the blue remains, at least temporarily, in the top 100 in the world. Seppi will rest next week, then at the weekend he will play in qualifying for the ATP 250 in Antwerp. The following week will be at the start in the qualifying in Vienna.
CH CH Mouilleron-Le-Captif
4
6
6
7
Winner: Vesely J.