Andreas Seppi is in the starting blocks at the US Open. © raygiubilo/Andreas Seppi
While Jannik Sinner can use the week before the US Open to prepare, things will get serious for Andreas Seppi on Wednesday: the man from Kaltern has to qualify at the last Grand Slam of the year. Surviving this is almost a must for the 38-year-old.
23. August 2022
From: leo
The veteran had to take a break last month due to a shoulder injury sustained at the ATP 250 tournament in Umag. Now, however, Seppi is fit and ready for qualifying at Flushing Meadows, where the stakes are high. Seppi, who is now only ranked 196th in the world, has to defend 90 points from the previous year in New York. If he doesn’t make it into the main draw, he slips out of the top 250 in the world. This would jeopardize participation in next year’s Australian Open qualification – provided Seppi plans to continue his career.
However, all this is a dream of the future: What counts is the here and now. And that’s the US Open, which takes place from August 29th to September 11th. At the start of qualifying, Seppi has to deal with an unknown opponent. He meets Filip Horansky (ATP 232). Seppi has never played against the Slovakian, who recently lost four games in a row. Although the South Tyrolean lacks match practice, he is the clear favourite. Not least because of his much greater wealth of experience: while the 29-year-old Horansky has only played eleven games at ATP level in his entire career, Seppi has 808 matches. From a South Tyrolean point of view, Horansky is not completely unknown: In March of this year he met Jannik Sinner as part of the Davis Cup. The youngster struggled, but finally won in two sets with 7:5 and 6:4.
Filip Horansky challenges Andreas Seppi. © AFP / NICOLAS TUCAT
Should Seppi win his opening match, he will meet either Sumit Nagal (ATP 464) from India or Canadian Vasek Pospisil (ATP 132). You need three wins to get into the main draw. It is not yet clear when the match against Horansky will begin on Wednesday. Seppi played his first Grand Slam tournament at the US Open in 2004. Now he wants to compete at the highest level for the 68th time.
