ATP, Andreas Seppi indulges in a resounding outburst

Bitter words, entrusted to his own Instagram profile

After effectively announcing his retirement, Andreas Seppi – former number one of Italian tennis, with a best ranking at 18th in the ATP rankings – would have gladly played the tournaments in Florence or Naples. To do so, however, it would have been necessary to obtain a wild card from the organizers, considering his ranking position. Wild cards, tools available to the organizers of a tournament to allow players who do not have the ranking right to enter the draw to still be able to participate in the competition, were bestowed, in the case of the Neapolitan event, on Flavio Cobolli and Luca Nardi, but not on the Alto Adige player.

The outburst of the Bolzano native tennis player, entrusted to his Instagram profile, is striking for the character’s well-known sobriety, never over the top and never polemical.

“I would have loved to play in the draw in Florence or Naples to bid farewell to tennis, unfortunately, however, the Italian Tennis Federation did not allow me to do so, telling me that ‘giving a Wild Card to someone who retires would be a waste’.” Words that will certainly cause discussion, those of Seppi, who will play his last tournament in Ortisei, in the Challenger scheduled from October 24 to 30.