South Tyrol's finest tennis player Andreas Seppi off the court

This was in the Italian tennis magazine and translated by the great Genci, who is Albania's finest tennis player and polygot.

Andreas Seppi

Kaltern– Cimitero Street [Cimitero means graveyard in Italian]. Well, Andreas lives here. And knowing his passion for horror movies we might think that his choice of the street where he lives was not casual. In reality our Davis Cup man doesn’t have anything to do with it, the foundations of this beautiful house were made by his grandfather years ago.

We are in Alto Adige, more precisely in Kaltern, a small village of 7.000 inhabitants 15 km far from Bozen. Here the people live – and well – on tourism and agriculture, especially vineyards and apples but also handicrafts. The sport that is more frequented is ice hockey and obviously skiing. It’s whole other story how did grow up here two tennis players that are among the top 50 (besides Andreas also Karin Knapp lives here). It’s here that “Seppio” – the nickname that his coach Sartori gave him – comes to recharge his batteries after the fatigues in the tournaments around the world.

He did that even after the nice semifinal reached in Vienna where, after beating with a clear score a top player like Baghdatis and eliminating from the tournament Ivan Ljubicic (a win that has the taste of a feat, since the Croat was undefeated in the Austrian capital in 2 years), was beaten in a well-fought match from the number 3 in the world Novak Djokovic. And that’s how Andy returned home with the number 55 in the ATP ranking in the bag and for someone that before Wimbledon was number 112 it’s not a small achievement.

After a trip of around 4 hours from Milan here we are in Seppi’s house. Andy comes to greet us – in tennis wear – and shows us his house and every room. Then we sit in the living room and, while the TV shows images from the satellite in German language, he talks us of his life outside the Tour. In the morning he never wakes up before 8.30 and he doesn’t like having breakfast. Sometimes he has a little bread, but rarely, because he’s never hungry in the morning.

The first challenge of the day is exactly the one with the alarm clock. It rings and he shuts it off…continuously. Till – but never before the fifth ring – he gives up and gets up. Second thing to do: going to take the coach with the car and going to TC Kaltern [Tennis Club Kaltern] for the training. “I play tennis for a couple of hours and then I return home, where fortunately there is my mother that cooks the lunch for me”.

His mother is called Maria Luisa and “tries to help me in everything”. His father, Hugo, on the contrary is a silent man “but when he talks you’d better open well your ears because he’ll explain things only once…”. Hugo used to play hockey and football, Maria Luisa was a good skier; none of them knew tennis. To close the family circle only the sister Maria is missing, she’s 20 years old and doesn’t live home because she works in Bozen. “After the lunch I never sleep – adds Seppi – otherwise I become lazy; I prefer to watch a little TV and then around 15.00 I return to tennis where Lisa is waiting for me”. Lisa is not his girlfriend but his fitness coach and the wife of his coach at the same time. So it’s gym till 17.30 and then tennis again before returning home.

“During the week I don’t go out in the night. I stay with the computer: messenger (nickname: andyseppi), I listen to songs, watch clips on youtube and then some movies; “Do you want to know who is the best Blockbuster ( movie mogul) of the circuit? Potito Starace. Do you ask yourself how did I manage to lose in the Kitzbuhel quarterfinals after being 6-1 5-3 ahead? Easy: if I beat him who would have supplied me with movies for the whole season?”.

We ask him how is life in a place where everybody knows about you and expect big things from you: “It’s nice although there are some complications. For example, if I want to go across the village it could take me even one hour because I always meet someone, friends or acquaintances of my mother, people that want to know how things are going. Because of this I usually go on bike, full speed, and this way I go quicker”.

While we’re talking the doorbell rings: it’s Karin Knapp, 1m 80cm of pleasant shyness, 20 years old (Seppi is already 23) and already number 57 of the WTA ranking. “She knew you were here and came over to greet you. Karin lives in the ground floor of a lodge, two minutes on foot from Seppi’s house. She lives alone and she takes care herself of cooking: “Mostly pasta – she tells us smiling – in fact I’m not a great cook”. “Between us there’s a nice friendship – adds Andreas – sometimes in the evening we go out to have an ice-cream together, especially in the winter during the 2 months were the Tour stops, because during the rest of the year we rarely happen to be home at the same time”.

It’s funny the rivalry between the 2 stars from Alto Adige. There are precise rules: who is ahead in the ranking chooses the court for training in the club. We ask Andreas if the advent of Karin has made him a little jealous…”No…on the contrary it’s good for me as we can share the pressure from who expects big things from us. Often we laugh on the fact that she is ahead in the ranking and I need to go and chase her. Fortunately now I have settled things again.It’s late, we need to say goodbye, there’s only time for one last secret at the front door…”Everyone talks well about girls like Kirilenko. She’s pretty of course, I don’t doubt it, but to celebrate an important win I prefer Karin”.