Italian tennis star Andreas Seppi has announced that he will retire from professional tennis at the end of this season – Jannik Sinner pays his respects.
Jannik Sinner took to Twitter to bid farewell to Italian tennis legend, Andreas Seppi. Seppi is set to retire next week after an illustrious career spanning over two decades. Seppi will play at the Ortisei Challenger tournament starting October 24 in Italy and that will be marked as his farewell tournament. Sinner shared pictures with Seppi on social media and made an emotional post to bid goodbye to the retiring star.
Sinner wrote:
“Congrats on a great career my friend, you are a great example and we will miss you.”
Seppi’s glorious career has a tinge of a bitter ending after he was refused Wildcard entries to the Naples and Florence tournaments by the Italian Tennis Federation. The heartbroken Italian took to social media to express his disappointment and sadness over the Italian tennis Federation’s cold response to his request. He claimed that he was denied a wildcard entry because his country’s apex tennis body felt that: ‘giving a wildcard to a retiring tennis player is a waste’.
Andreas Seppi has been the flag-bearer of Italian tennis for a long time
Seppi has had a stellar career as a professional player. He is the first Italian to win a title on all three surfaces and also has an ATP doubles title to his name. In 2013, he was at the peak of his game and reached his career-best ranking of World No.18 in singles. Seppi is still widely remembered for his victory over Roger Federer at the 2015 Australian Open. An unseeded Seppi caused a major upset by beating second seed and four-time champion Roger Federer in the third round, after having lost to him in ten previous meetings.
It is quite a surprise that a national hero like Seppi wasn’t given the chance to play a farewell match on home turf. The ATP Naples tournament ended on Sunday, while the Florence Open concluded last weekend. Now that both the top tier tournaments are over, Seppi had no option but to register for a Challenger tournament in order to fulfill his wish of playing the final match of his career on home turf.
Seppi has had a career that deserves to be celebrated and we wish him the best for his future endeavours.
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