Andreas Seppi ousts Igor Andreev in second round – BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy 2011
Playing the second round match of the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy 2011 on Wednesday, 21st September, Andreas Seppi of Italy rivalled against Igor Andreev, Russian world No.99, in a long one hour 45 minutes duel to mark
up his first victory against the Andreev, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, and make it into the quarter-final of the ATP Tour 250 event.
The match had a turn around as it slowly went into the 2nd set. Amazingly, Andreev had never lost a match against the Italian. Out of the 6 matches they had played against each other before the 2nd rounder,
the Russian stood on a six match winning streak.
Moving on with the tie, the Russian won the service toss and stood at the red clay to open up the fixture. Serving out the first game, Andreev rolled the scoreboard down first winning, 1-0. Following with a level up, Seppi won
game 2 and switched back the serve, 1-1.
Comparatively, Seppi now has a greater ranking; however, the Russian world No.99 had his records straightened up against the Italian. Nevertheless, Seppi, returning to the 28-year-old rival in game 4, broke and served to lead the
set 3-1. Andreev did hop back a game but the Italian repeated the serve-break -serve weapon and pulled off winning the set 6-2.
Dominating through the first set, Seppi stumbled down in the second. With a slow levelled up start at 1-1, Andreev made a sudden move when he served-broke-served turning the tables and led 4-1. Seppi felt a strong comeback when
he had to save breakpoints to win games. However, the Italian could not fill up the 3 games difference and finally lost the 2nd set, 6-3.
Finally, with match scores now at level, the two went down for the final showdown of the tie with the betting odds towards the Russian. Seppi opened up the first game of set 3, and served out. Flushing out game two, the Italian
world No.51 broke and served next to extend his lead to 3-0.
Frustrated with his play, Andreev finally pulled off a game and went on for a breakpoint win. Serving out game 5 with a rock solid defence, Seppi broke the Russian in game 6 with the score meter flashing ‘one more to go!!’
Serving out game 7, the Italian 27-year-old bagged the second set 6-1, and the match 2-1 to walk off the clay circuit with a ticket to the quarter-finals. Andreev, however, had a ticket as well but for a seat in the stands.
Nevertheless the fixture was worth the watch. Seppi now lands in the hands of Juan Ignacio Chela, the top seeded Argentine in the quarterfinal round.
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