Looking back on the big tennis news in our exclusive ‘Second Service’… Andy Murray withdrew from Antwerp to ‘pace himself’ as Andrea Seppi blasted the Italian Tennis Federation over denied wild card, plus more…
To start this tennis news roundup, Andy Murray has pulled out of the ATP 250 European Open in Antwerp, Belgium in order to rest up before later events.
The former world number one claimed his only title post-hip surgery at the event in 2019. After returning to the event in 2021, he would have faced Jaume Munar in the first round this year. Instead, he will target the Swiss Indoors Basel and the Paris Masters to close out his 2022.
According to i newspaper: “Andy will pace himself between now and end of season, but the plan is still Basel and Paris.”
In other tennis news, Andreas Seppi has claimed that he was denied a wildcard and the chance to finish his career at an Italian ATP event.
The 38-year-old, who peaked at 18th in the ATP rankings, recently announced he would retire from the tour this season. Currently ranked 301st in the world, Seppi hoped for a wildcard into either of the ATP 250 events held in Italy this month. But Seppi has revealed via social media that the Italian Tennis Federation (FIT) did not oblige for either tournament.
“I would have loved to play in the Florence or Naples tournament for my farewell to professional tennis,” he wrote on his Instagram story. “But unfortunately the Italian Tennis Federation did not allow me to, saying that ‘giving a wildcard to a retiring player would have been a waste.”
Furthermore, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula are excited to compete together in Fort Worth, Texas after becoming the fifth doubles team to qualify for the WTA Finals.
The duo won their third title of the season at the San Diego Open, defeating fellow WTA Finals qualifiers Gabriela Dabrowski and Giuliana Olmos 1-6, 7-5, 10-4 in the final. Pegula also became the third woman to qualify for the singles behind Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeur by reaching the semi-finals at the event.
“It’s a huge honour,” Pegula said after the pair won in San Diego. “When we did well earlier this year we were also doing well in singles. But we were like ‘we want to make year-end Finals for doubles and singles as well.’
“So I think for us to be able to play doubles is awesome.”
Read what Pegula had to say here.
To conclude, Iga Swiatek has admitted that she will not forget her stellar 2022 season any time soon after claiming her eighth title of the year in San Diego.
The world number one won the WTA 500 event by defeating qualifier Donna Vekic in the final 6-3, 3-6, 6-0. With victory Swiatek extends her ranking points tally to 10,835 and surpasses 10,000 points accumulated over the season.She is the first woman to achieve that feat since Serena Williams in 2013.
“I think this is going to be the season that I’m going to be thinking of for the rest of my life,” she said after winning the tournament. “On the other hand I would love to have season like that in the future.
“I guess the best way to do that is to not focus on what happened but focusing on what’s next. I still know I have many things to improve so I’m looking forward to it.”
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