Australian Open: Hard Parts of Faulty Tennis and Sippy

Andreas Seppi meets an old friend in the first round. © Del Olivo

The Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the season, kicks off in Melbourne on Sunday evening. There are also South Tyrol tennis players Andreas Seppi and Janick Sener, who in the first round go to work.

05 Feb 2021

36-year-old Calterer Sibi faces Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas (ATP 70) in the first round, while Sextner Sinner has to play against Canadian Denis Shapovalov (ATP 12).

After the coronavirus chaos of the past few days in Melbourne, the main draw for this year’s first Grand Slam tournament was drawn early Friday morning CET. Sippy, who failed to face Salvatore Caruso at the ATP 250 in Melbourne on Monday, is running his 63rd Grand Slam in Melbourne, 62nd in a row. Since 2005 Wimbledon has participated in all Grand Slam tournaments. Only Spaniard Feliciano Lopez currently has a longer series of 74 posts in a row. South Tyrol competes in the Australian Open for the 16th consecutive year this year. He reached the fourth round four times in the past eight years, in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2018. Last year, Sebi reached the second round, but then had to admit defeat to Stan Wawrinka in a thriller of five sentences. . Beretscher must defend 45 ATP points next week.

The number 107 currently in the world starts in Australia with 35-year-old Pablo Cuevas from Uruguay, who leads him 37 places in the ATP ranking. Seppi goes to this match as an outsider, but has a chance against the experienced South American. Sebi and Cuevas faced each other three times in their careers: in 2010 in the semi-finals in Kitzbühel and in 2015 at the 1000 Masters in Paris Bercy, Sebi won in two sets, while Cuevas managed to prove himself in Umag in 2014.

Lospech for Sinner

On the other hand, 19-year-old Sesto Sener is fighting the sixth Grand Slam in his career. Pusterer, currently serving in the ATP 250 in Melbourne, was extremely unlucky in the draw. Sinner, who is currently ranked 36th in the world, has been ranked 12th in the world since its inception. From Canada Denis Shapovalov. Shapovalov, 21, is a world-class player, but at the Australian Open he did not make it past the third round. The previous year, Sinner had eliminated the Australian Qualifiers Max Purcell initially, and in the second round he had to concede defeat by Hungarian Marton Fucsovics in three sets.

Author: pm