The Italian scored his first ATP win of 2021 beating the Canadian in four sets at the French Open.
Andreas Seppi won his first match of the ATP season upsetting the world number 21 and Montreal native Felix Auger Aliassime in a marathon four set match that lasted three hours and 35 minutes.
“I felt good physically, I was hitting the ball well and the most important thing was the pressure I put on him and that feeling that I could play my brand of tennis”.
It was the Canadian who had the better start to the match holding his opening service game and earning two early breakpoints the following game but the world number 98 would hold his own and save both.
At 2-2 it was the Italian with two chances to break and on the second opportunity he was able to get the breakthrough and take an early 3-2 lead and the following game the world number 21 had a chance to break right back but the 37 year old veteran saved it before holding serve to consolidate the break.
That break was enough for the Bolzano, Italy native to serve out the set to take a one set lead.
The second set stayed on serve until 4-3 when the world number 98 once again had the first chance of the set to break but the 20 year old next gen saved both and held serve.
At 5-4 the world number 98 had three chances to break and take the second set but was denied by the Canadian and after saving breakpoints the following game the set would be decided by a tiebreaker.
The Canadian raced to a 4-2 lead but the Italian was slowing finding his way back into the breaker and managed to tie it at 5-5 and would take the breaker 10-8 playing some great tennis to take a two sets to none lead.
Seppi carried the momentum into the third set and at 1-1 earned a breakpoint and got the first break of the set and at 4-2 had a chance to go up a double break but the Montreal native pulled out two big serves to save them.
At 4-3 the Canadian had two chances to go back on serve and he did just that to level the set at four and had a look at three set points and the Italian would double fault to give the world number 21 the third set and send it to a fourth set.
In the opening game of the fourth set the world number 98 who seemed to be struggling with his serve double faulted once again to give the Montreal native an early chance to break but he was able to save it and hold serve.
At 2-2 the world number 21 played a tight service game and after a double fault to give the 37 year old a breakpoint he would break to once again take an early 3-2 lead.
It stayed on serve until 5-4 with the Italian looking to finish the job and get the win he would face two breakpoints but came up big saving both and serving out the match to complete the upset.
After the match in a one to one interview with NYT he spoke about his priorities for this clay court season after mostly playing at the Challenger level of the ATP tour circuit.
“The most important thing is to be healthy and play tennis and I still like this sport and I still want to play and fight so the most important thing is to be healthy and play since I won’t play a lot of events and I will need to manage my schedule”.
Seppi will now face Soonwoo Kwon in the second round of the French Open after the South Korean beat Kevin Anderson of South Africa in four sets as well 7-5, 6-4, 2-6,7-6 (4).
