Andreas Seppi denies an upset against Guillaume Rufin in round one – BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy 2012
Seeded at number six in the tournament draw, Andreas Seppi of Italy had to go through three gruelling sets before hunting down the 21-year-old talented French qualifier, Guillaume Rufin, in the opening round of the BRD Nastase
Tiriac Trophy. The Tuesday’s contest witnessed Seppi registering his eighth victory of the running season, finishing off with a final score line of 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-4.
21-year-old Rufin is ranked way below Seppi in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Rankings but posed a solid performance to give the sixth seeded Italian a rough ride before submitting. He blasted his way in the
opener, pinning down Seppi with a breadstick to get one up. He kept with his onslaught in the following set but Seppi forced his way back in business and took the second set in a tie-breaker round. The Italian sixth seed then manoeuvred his way in the final
set to complete his hard-fought victory in style.
It was the first encounter of these two talented competitors and provided sheer entertainment to the local crowd in Bucharest, Romania. The see-saw battle featured a number of momentum swings but it was the sheer class and experience
of the 28-year-old Italian which prevailed in the end. Albeit an ordinary serve precision of 53 per cent in the match, Seppi clinched 30 out of 44 first serve points and nailed three out of eight break points en route to victory. His French opponent bettered
him with 39 out of 55 first serve points and four out of eight serve breaks, yet finishing on the losing side.
Rufin was off to a flyer in the opening set, going for a five-game killing spree to pose a 5-0 lead in no time. Seppi held his serve for the first time in the sixth game but it was way too late for the sixth seed to make a comeback
in the set. Rufin got 1-0 lead in the match after bagging the opener at 6-1.
Intense tennis action continued in the next set as well and both men exchanged two serve breaks apiece to drag the set into a tie-breaker round at 6-6. Seppi finally capitalised on his opponent’s mistakes in the decider and pocketed
the second set at 7-6(5) to bring the contest back on even terms.
The final set of the match witnessed just one break point and it came in the fifth game from the racquet of Seppi. He broke into a 3-2 lead and then held his remaining serves to come out victorious at 6-4. He will face Germany’s
Cedrik-Marcel Stebe in the second round of the tournament.
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