Andreas Seppi battles past Edouard Roger-Vasselin into the second round of Open de Nice Côte d’Azur
World number 51 Andreas Seppi of Italy came back from a deficit of one set to beat world number 137 Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France in three sets 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the Open de Nice Côte d’Azur at the Nice Lawn
Tennis Club in Nice on Monday. Seppi needed an hour and 51 minutes to oust his opponent in a tough contest.
Roger-Vasselin took the early lead as he broke Seppi in the second game of the opening set, racing to a 3-0 lead. The French capitalized on the single break of serve and won the set 6-3.
The 27-year-old fired three aces and 61 percent of the first serves, claiming 79 percent of the points on them in the first set. Roger-Vasselin converted one of the four break points he received and succeeded in saving the only
break point he faced in the first set.
In the second set, Seppi and Roger-Vasselin held their serve in the first six games to equalize the score at 3-3. After that, Seppi captured three straight games, breaking his opponent in the eighth game and claiming the set 6-3.
The Italian hit one ace and 59 percent of the first serves in the second set. Seppi claimed 82 percent of the first service points in the second set. On the other hand, Roger-Vasselin delivered four aces but the French had a low
first serve percentage as he hit just 55 percent of the first serves in the second set. The right-handed had no answer to his opponent’s big first serves as he managed to win just 18 percent of the first return points in the second set. Roger-Vasselin was
unable to save one of the four break points he faced in the second set.
After squaring off the score at one set apiece, Seppi did not look back and broke his opponent twice in the deciding set. The Italian allowed Roger-Vasselin to win just two games and claimed the set 6-2.
Seppi improved his serve as compared to the previous two sets, firing three aces and 76 percent of the first serves in the final set. The Italian converted 75 percent of the first serves into points in the third set. In comparison,
Roger-Vasselin served poorly as he committed three double faults and hit a mere 44 percent of the first serves in the deciding set. Seppi capitalized on two of the four break points on Roger-Vasselin’s serve and did not face any break point on his own serve
in the final set.
The Italian will take on world number 7 David Ferrer of Spain in the second round. The Spaniard, seeded first at the event, received a bye in the first round.
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