"Giving wild card to retiring player would have been a waste" - Seppi slams Italian Tennis Federation

| by Evita Mueller

Andreas Seppi had a successful tennis career that lasted for many years. After 20 years on the ATP Tour, he chose to announce his retirement, which seems to have come out of nowhere.

Although the Italian never advanced past the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament, he managed to win three ATP titles and beat players like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Lleyton Hewitt. In 2013, the Italian reached his career-high 18th rank in the ATP Rankings.

Andreas Seppi announces sudden retirement from professional tennis
Andreas Seppi announces sudden retirement from professional tennis

After a successful twenty-year career, Andreas Seppi has now declared that the event in Ortisei will be his last. The Italian, who has placed in the top 100 every year since 2005, was ranked 106th at the end of 2020 and 102nd overall in 2022.

In this year's rankings, he fell to position 257 after losing 18 of the 33 matches he played. After taking part in a few fruitless ATP qualifying matches, Seppi declared that the Challenger competition in Ortisei, in his native country, would be his last. He wrote on social media:

"It’s been a difficult season, especially in terms of my physical condition. Many ailments and little continuity. I realized that my body can no longer bear certain efforts and I have decided that the tournament in Ortisei will be my last one as a professional."

Just one day after announcing his retirement, Seppi revealed that he wanted to play an ATP event in Florence or Naples as his last professional tournament, but his request was denied by the Italian Tennis Federation.

"I would have loved to play in the Florence or Naples tournament for my farewell to professional tennis, but unfortunately the Italian Tennis Federation did not allow me to, saying that "giving a Wild Card to a retiring player would have been a waste"."

The whole situation was also noticed by the Italian's colleague from the ATP Tour, John Millman, who tweeted: "Andreas Seppi not getting a wildcard into a tour event in Italy to end his career is a joke. The guy has had a brilliant career, represented his country at Davis Cups and Olympic Games and the Italian Federation can’t give a WC? Pretty pathetic."

ATP event in Italy postponed due to terrible court quality and complaints from players
ATP event in Italy postponed due to terrible court quality and complaints from players

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