Flavio Cipolla stuns Andreas Seppi in the opening draw – 2012 Open 13
A surprising outcome was witnessed on the very first day of the Open 13 tournament in Marseille, France, as the eighth seeded Italian competitor, Andreas Seppi, was blown away by his unseeded Fellow compatriot, Flavio Cipolla,
in straight sets. The 87th ranked Cipolla outsmarted Seppi with amazing game play and wrapped up victory at 6-4, 7-6(4), to move into the round of 16 at the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event.
The all-Italian affair remained evenly poised until the last minute but the world number 44, Seppi, was found lagging behind his opponent at the crucial moments of the match. Cipolla got the better of him in the opener with an
aggressive start, snatching the set to get one up early in the match. Seppi posed some serious resistance to keep the scoreboard ticking neck-to-neck but crumb led in the pressure situation of the tie-breaker round to finish on the losing side in the end.
Cipolla was the better server in the match, delivering 67 of his first serve on target and clinching 38 out of 55 points on it to claim the match. Surprisingly, only one serve break was registered in the entire match, obviously,
coming from the racquet of the unseeded Cipolla in the opening set. Seppi crafted seven break opportunities in the contest but utterly failed to convert even a single chance to his advantage, eventually leading to his downfall in the match.
The 28-year-old Italian took reins of the match early, breaking Seppi in his very first serve game to lead 2-0 in the set. The eighth seed Italian was not ready for such a sudden onslaught and failed to recover from the damage
done in the rest of the set. Cipolla took the opening set after holding four deuces in the 10th game.
A more competitive second set was witnessed, with Seppi labouring extremely hard to make his way back in the match and dragged the set into a tie-breaker round. A crucial mini-break from Cipolla in the last crucial moments of the
set proved decisive for him and he closed out the match at 7-6(4).
Cipolla is slated to take on unseeded local competitor, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, in the next encounter to fight for a place in the quarter-final draw. Roger-Vasselin registered another stunning result in the opening round of the
tournament, defeating the superior-ranked Finn opponent, Jarkko Nieminen, in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6(4). It will be interesting to see the two surprising competitors will go one-on-one in the second round on Wednesday.
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