Andreas Seppi ousts Benoit Paire to conquer the Serbia Open 2012
Second seed, Andreas Seppi, got the better of the French rising star, Benoit Paire, in straight sets at the Serbia Open 2012 on Sunday. He jolted down a 6-3, 6-2 victory against the 22-year-old to grab the title at this ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 clay court event.
The Italian star displayed his best performance in Belgrade and ultimately conquered his second career title. After pocketing eight games in a row, Seppi not only edged in the FedEx ATP Head 2 Head series by 1-0 against the 22-year-old but also bagged 250 ATP ranking points.
"I think my play was really solid this week," Seppi assessed. "Maybe yesterday, the first set was under my expectations, but the rest was very good, so I can be very happy about this victory."
Seppi nervously stepped on the Serbian courts and suffered the first blow in the fourth game to go 1-3 down. However, he went berserk after that and reeled off the following five games in a row. The Italian blocked one out of two breakpoints he faced and cashed in half of the six break opportunities to clobber a 6-3 score line.
Ranked 32nd in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Seppi let his spark lit towards the follow-up set and leaped to a 3-0 lead with a break of serve. Later, the Italian swiped in the remaining serves and cashed in another break opportunity in the last game to seal the set six games to two.
Summing up Seppi’s performance at this 70-minute performance, the Italian took full advantage of several mistakes his rival committed. He also clobbered a better first serve share of 68 per cent as compared to Paire’s 46 per cent.
The 28-year-old captured his first title at the AEGON International event last year (trashed Janko Tipsarevic in the final) and improved to a 2-1 title-round appearance after this victory.
Paire on the other side of net was not at his best.
"I was stressed and tired today," the disappointed French said after the match. "It's disappointing that I couldn't win any easy games with my serve after leading 3-1 in the first set. My first serve percentage was very low and that's why he was able to attack all the time.”
The French was competing at his first final showdown and was bidding to become the first player to grab his maiden title this season.
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