2001–2003: Professional and ATP debut Seppi turned pro in 2001, playing exclusively on the
ATP Futures and
ATP Challenger Series circuit for three seasons. He won his first Futures event in 2003, in
Munich, Germany, defeating Lars Uebel. In addition, he qualified for his first two ATP events at the
2003 Generali Open in Kitzbühel and in Bucharest, where he was defeated by
Olivier Mutis and
José Acasuso, respectively.
2004–2005: Major & top 100 debut, first Masters quarterfinal In 2004, Seppi made his
Davis Cup debut against Georgia, losing to
Irakli Labadze in five sets. In the
2004 Generali Open in Kitzbühel, Seppi entered as a wildcard into the main draw. He failed to convert 10 match points against
Rainer Schüttler in a second-round loss. A few weeks later, Seppi was able to gain revenge for this loss. In his Grand Slam debut at the
2004 US Open as a qualifier, he defeated Schüttler, coming from two sets to love down. Seppi finished the 2005 season in the top 100 for the first time. He qualified for four
ATP Masters Series events, with his best performance at the
2005 Hamburg Masters, where he reached the quarterfinals. In the Davis Cup, Seppi came back from two sets to love down and defeated
Juan Carlos Ferrero, before losing to
Rafael Nadal in the reverse singles. After this performance, he reached his first
ATP Tour semifinal in
Palermo, where he defeated defending champion
Tomáš Berdych, before falling to
Igor Andreev.
2006–2007: Maiden ATP final In 2006, Seppi made semifinals on hard courts in
Sydney and grass in
Nottingham, showing that he was able to perform well on other surfaces besides clay. Seppi ended the streak of four consecutive Sydney titles for
Lleyton Hewitt and, in the process, saved two match points. Seppi lost against
Andre Agassi in his last appearance at
Wimbledon. At the 2007
Australian Open, Seppi defeated American
Bobby Reynolds in five sets, after saving a match point. The match was scheduled for the afternoon, but was put back due to the heat. before losing to
Roger Federer in the semi-finals. In 2009 Seppi made the semifinals in
Belgrade and in
Umag both on clay, while winning his second Challenger title in
San Marino defeating countryman
Potito Starace in the final. Seppi found success at the challenger level in 2010 where he won his third challenger title at
Kitzbühel accounting for
Victor Crivoi in the final.
2011–2012: First major fourth round, Maiden singles title, top 25 year-end ranking For the second time Seppi won the Challenger title at
Bergamo in 2011 and later in the year followed that victory with his first
ATP title in 2011 at
Eastbourne which came on grass defeating
Janko Tipsarević in the final after the Serbian retired at 5–3 down in the 3rd set. Earlier in the day Seppi played
Igor Kunitsyn in the semi-final which he also won in 3 sets. Seppi won his second
ATP title in 2012 at
Belgrade defeating
David Nalbandian in the semi-finals and
Benoît Paire in the final. En route the quarterfinals at the
2012 Rome Masters, he defeated
Stanislas Wawrinka in the third round, having saved six match points in the process. Seppi reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career at the
2012 French Open, eventually being defeated by world #1
Novak Djokovic in five sets having won the first two sets. He defeated former World No. 3
Nikolay Davydenko in the first round and former top ten player
Fernando Verdasco along the way. He did not fare as well at the other Grand Slam tournaments, losing in the first round of the
Australian and
US Opens as well as
Wimbledon. He won his third title at the
2012 Kremlin Cup defeating
Thomaz Bellucci. Seppi finished the year 2012 ranked World No. 23 in singles, his best year-end ranking in his career. .
2013: Top 20 debut and career-high ranking Seppi started his
2013 season at the
Hopman Cup, partnering
2010 French Open champion
Francesca Schiavone. Seppi lost all three of his singles rubbers, to
Novak Djokovic,
Bernard Tomic and
Tommy Haas, but combined with Schiavone to win all their doubles rubbers, against the Serbian pairing of Djokovic and
Ana Ivanovic, the Australian pairing of Tomic and
Ashleigh Barty and the German pairing of Haas and
Tatjana Malek. The win over the Serbian pair of Djokovic and Ivanovic marked the first victory for Seppi and Schiavone over their respective opponents in any capacity, as Seppi has never defeated Djokovic and Schiavone has never beaten Ivanovic in professional singles matches. At the
Sydney International the following week, Seppi reached the semifinals as the third seed, losing to eventual champion Tomic. Seppi reached the fourth round of the
2013 Australian Open for the first time at this Major, a result which saw him enter the top 20 in singles for the first time at a career-high of World No. 18 on 28 January 2013. Mixed results followed the Australian Open, with a quarterfinal loss in
Dubai to eventual champion Djokovic (extending the Italian's winless record to 0–11) and a fourth-round loss in
Miami to
Andy Murray, who went on to win the tournament.
2014: Three consecutive third rounds at Masters 1000 Seppi's 2014 season started poorly; losing every match at the Hopman Cup. In the Sydney International, Seppi was seeded 3rd. He was defeated by
Marinko Matosevic in the second round (bye first round). In the Australian Open, he beat
Lleyton Hewitt in five sets but lost to
Donald Young in the second round. At the Rotterdam Open, he was defeated by
Tomáš Berdych in the first round. He then lost to
Michaël Llodra in Marseille. Seppi did manage to find some form in Dubai, reaching the second round by beating
Florian Mayer coming from 3–0 down in the third set. The match ended 4–6, 6–1, 7–5. He was then defeated by
Philipp Kohlschreiber. He reached the third rounds of the Indian Wells and the Miami Masters losing to
Stan Wawrinka and
David Ferrer respectively. At the
2014 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters Seppi defeated no.13 seed
Mikhail Youzhny and
Pablo Andújar but lost to
Rafael Nadal in the third round.
2015: Win over Federer, Maiden ATP 500 final In January at the
2015 Australian Open, the unseeded Seppi caused a huge upset by beating second seed and four-time champion
Roger Federer in the third round in four sets, after having lost to him in ten previous meetings. Seppi was defeated in the next round by
Nick Kyrgios in five sets, despite having a match point in the fourth set. Seppi's next tournament after the Australian Open was the
2015 PBZ Zagreb Indoors, where he was seeded fifth. There, he reached his first final since
2012 but lost to Spaniard
Guillermo García López in straight sets. In June, at the
2015 Gerry Weber Open, Roger Federer took his revenge for the earlier in the year loss over Seppi by winning the title. This was the biggest title championship match thus far for Seppi that he lost in straight sets.
2016: Maiden doubles title, decline in rankings He started off with a decent result in the
2016 Australian Open, as the 28th seed he managed to get to the third round before losing to eventual champion
Novak Djokovic. He had two disappointing results in the
2016 Indian Wells Masters & the
2016 Miami Open, In the
2016 Indian Wells Masters he lost to 9th seed
John Isner and in the
2016 Miami Open he lost to 27th seed
Alexandr Dolgopolov. In the
Italian Open he lost to
Richard Gasquet in the second round. Seppi crashed out of the
2016 French Open in the first round to
Ernest Gulbis. In
2016 Wimbledon Championships, Seppi smashed
Guillermo García López in straight sets before losing to eventual finalist
Milos Raonic in the second round. In the
US Open, Seppi beat Frenchman
Stéphane Robert before falling to 4 seed
Rafa Nadal. Seppi finished the year ranked World No. 87 in singles.
2017: Third Australian Open fourth round Seppi's first ATP tournament of the year was the
Australian Open. After beating
Paul-Henri Mathieu in the first round, he upset No.14
Nick Kyrgios, despite losing the first 2 sets of the match. He then took down
Steve Darcis in 4 sets before falling to
Stan Wawrinka in a tight 3-set, 3-tiebreak match. This matched Seppi's best result in singles at a Major. He then played the
Sofia Open where he lost to Steve Darcis in the Round of 16. He lost in the first round of a challenger in Bergamo. He then lost in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships to an in-form Fernando Verdasco.
2018: Fourth Australian Open fourth round At the Australian Open 2018 he again reached the round of 16 for the fourth time in his career before losing to
Kyle Edmund in 4 sets. At the
2018 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, he entered in the qualifying draw, but lost in qualifying competition to
Martin Kližan. Seppi then gained a spot in the main draw as lucky loser, where he defeated
João Sousa in three sets at first round. In the second round, he upset No.3 seed,
Alexander Zverev in straights sets. In the quarterfinals, he defeated
Daniil Medvedev to reach the semifinals, but lost to the newly returned to the No.1 position in the
ATP rankings,
Roger Federer in straight sets, failing to get the spot in the final.
2019–2020: Tenth ATP final Seppi reached the final in
2019 in Sydney, where he lost to
Alex de Minaur. He also reached the final of the
2020 New York Open where he was defeated by
Kyle Edmund.
2021: Back to Top 100, Fourth US Open third round He won his tenth title at the
2021 Biella Challenger Indoor III becoming at the age of 37, the oldest champion from Italy in the history of the circuit. In addition, he joined Ivo Karlović, Tommy Robredo and Stéphane Robert as titlists aged 37 or older in the last four years. As a result, he moved back to the top 100. At the
2021 US Open he reached the second round after a five setter with a final set tiebreak 2–6, 7–5, 6–4, 2–6, 7–6(13) where he defeated
Márton Fucsovics, saving 5 match points. He then went on to reach the third round for the fourth time in his career defeating tenth seed
Hubert Hurkacz in a stunning victory in four sets also with a final set tiebreak 2–6 6–4 6–4 7–6(6).
2022: 66th consecutive major appearance, Retirement He competed in his 66th consecutive major at the
2022 Australian Open. His streak of 66 straight major appearances is the second longest active and
third longest of all time behind Lopez's streak of 79 and Verdasco's 67 appearances. He failed to qualify for the
2022 French Open ending his consecutive appearances streak at this Major and overall in Majors. He also failed to qualify for the
2022 Wimbledon Championships. As of the
2022 US Open he was in sixth place on the list of
Grand Slam appearances overall with 67. In early October, he announced his retirement after the
Sparkassen ATP Challenger in
Ortisei, his hometown. He lost in the first round to
Yannick Hanfmann. == Performance timelines ==