Andreas Seppi wins first ATP World Tour title as Janko Tipsarevic retires – AEGON International 2011
Andreas Seppi of Italy managed to clinch his maiden ATP World Tour title, after Tipsarevic retired due to an upper leg injury while trailing 6(5)-7, 6-3, 3-5.
Tipsarevic entered the tournament with a lot of reasons to be positive, having beaten Seppi in their prior three encounters. It may have been Seppi’s first ATP final appearance, compared to Tipsarevic’s fourth for the year, but
Seppi did not look nervous when he opened the match with a sweetly-struck backhand winner before coming through a tight first game.
With Seppi seemingly happy to just keep the ball in play in the early moments, Tipsarevic then stepped in with aggressive winners off the backhand and forehands sides to push the set into a tie-breaker. But the Italian immediately
recovered and managed to dominate the first set.
However, in a closely-fought second set it was the shot-making brilliance of Tipsarevic that proved decisive when he played a tremendous backhand winner down the line and followed up with an unstoppable array of shots to break
for 5-3, before serving out the set with utmost ease.
With Tipsarevic in such imperious form, he did not need any fortune to help him out and Seppi looked understandably deflated after the Serbian benefited from his opponent’s feeble game to tie the score at one set a peace.
However, in the third set, Tipsarevic looked to struggle with the dim light after the first game of the third set, and then subsequently dropped his serve to fall behind 2-0. He continued to protest about the light as he gave up
the next two games, before rain halt the proceedings, and when the match restored, the Serbian injured himself resulting from a slip and just fell off the ground.
After losing the match, Tipsarevic who looked totally annoyed with this entire situation said “It’s an absolute disgrace. The organization … not the organization, but the fact what happened today. At 4-3, 15-all or love-30 when
I slipped, I asked the chair umpire or the referee, ‘What else needs to happen for you to postpone this match?’ And he was just quiet. He was just repeating like a parrot that we have enough light, we have enough light.”
Despite losing his final match at the AEGON International, Tipsarevic will look to hone his grass court form at the Wimbledon Championships as the 30th seed.
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