Paris – The second Grand Slam tournament of the season, the French Open, begins on Sunday in Paris. South Tyrolean tennis aces Jannik Sinner and Andreas Seppi will also be there. The 19-year-old Sextner Sinner will face the French Pierre-Hugues Herbert (ATP 83) in the first round, while the Kalterer Seppi has to face Felix Auger-Aliassime (ATP 21) from Canada.
Andreas Seppi, who failed to kick off Sebastian Korda at the ATP 250 tournament in Parma on Tuesday, is playing his 64th Grand Slam tournament in Paris, the 63rd in a row. Since Wimbledon 2005 he has participated in all Grand Slam tournaments. The Überetscher is taking part in the world’s most famous clay court tournament for the 16th time. He achieved his best result in Roland Garros nine years ago when he was eliminated in the round of 16, only in the fifth set, against the Serbian Novak Djokovic. Last year, Seppi, who is currently ranked 95th in the ATP computer, had to admit defeat to the American Korda in four sets right at the start.
Also this year, Seppi will be put to the test in round one. The “Azzurro” meets Felix Auger-Aliassime, number 20 on the seed list and 21 in the world. Seppi and the 20-year-old Canadian have never faced each other in their careers, but Auger-Aliassime is an absolute top player. In Paris, Seppi hopes to celebrate his first clay court win since 2018. The last success on Seppi’s red ashes on the ATP tour was over three years ago. On May 23, 2018, he defeated the Spaniard Bernabe Zapata Miralles in Geneva, followed by twelve defeats in a row.
Feasible task for Sinner
The draw went better for Jannik Sinner (ATP 19), who is seeded number 18 in Paris. The 19-year-old from Sesto will face French Pierre-Hugues Herbert in round one, whom he was able to defeat 6: 3, 6: 1 in the only duel so far last year in Cologne. The world ranking 83. Herbert is a very experienced player and has already reached the final in Marseille this year, but lost to Medvedev there. Sinner is the clear favorite in the match and after three defeats in the second round in a row in Madrid, Rome and Lyon, he finally wants to go far again. In round two, Sinner would meet the winner from the duel between Gianluca Mager and John Millman, in the round of 16 there could then be another clash with Rafael Nadal. Sinner is contesting his seventh Grand Slam tournament in his career, last year he reached the quarter-finals in Paris, where he failed in three sets against the eventual winner Nadal.
ITF: Meliss eliminated from Sibenik in the round of 16
For Verena Meliss, the $ 15,000 ITF tournament in Sibenik comes to an end in the round of 16. Kaltererin was also eliminated in doubles.
The 23-year-old South Tyrolean, number three on the seed list and 507 in the world, beat the Italian Federica Rossi 6: 4, 6: 4 in Croatia yesterday. In the round of 16 Meliss met the five years younger Czech Darja Vidmanova (WTA 842), against whom she had lost the only duel in the previous year in the semifinals in Heraklion with 2: 6, 4: 6. Even today there was nothing to get for the woman from Kaltern. Meliss lost the first set 2: 6, the second she also won 6: 2. In the third, decisive phase of the game, Vidmanova finally prevailed 6-1 after exactly 1:30 hours of play.
Meliss was also in the double quarter-finals with Sinja Kraus in the afternoon. The Italian-Austrian duo was 2: 3 behind the number four seeded “Azzurre” Enola Chiesa / Federica Rossi when Meliss / Kraus suddenly had to give up.
From: mk
