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Seppi handed victory after topsy-turvy contest

Andreas Seppi came through a marathon match to win his first ATP title © Getty Images

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Andreas Seppi was handed his first ATP Tour title after Janko Tipsarevic retired hurt with the Italian serving for the win in a rollercoaster match that had almost everything.

Seppi was crowned the winner after an increasingly irate Tipsarevic decided to call it a day with the score 5-3 in the Italian's favour in the third and final set.

Rain had interrupted the contest on one occasion when, after the Serbian had appeared to cause some damage after slipping on the surface, he was unable to continue following his Italian opponent's decisive late break - leaving the final scoreline reading 7-6(5) 3-6 5-3.

The manner the contest was concluded was disappointing, as the previous two hours and 35 minutes of action had not been short of intrigue and momentum shifts.

The first set was a close-fought affair, with both players negating breaks of serve early on to send matters to a tie-break. Initially there was nothing to separate them, before Seppi managed to steal a point on Tipsarevic's serve and ride that advantage through to the set.

Tipsarevic roared back to take the second stanza 6-3 despite dropping an early break of serve, setting up an all-or-nothing decider. But it was Seppi who somehow wrested back control as his opponent complained about bad light, holding his serve before breaking twice in succession to rush into a 4-0 lead.

A shell-shocked Tipsarevic immediately broke back, however, to give himself a glimmer of hope - before holding his serve and finding another break (in the midst of a few minor weather delays, and slips on the surface) to bring the scoreline back to 4-3.

That would be as good as it got, however, as 27-year-old Seppi took advantage of his hobbling opponent to give himself a break opportunity - one he would take despite Tipsarevic's valiant opposition.

That break evidently broke the Serbian's spirit as he retired from the contest, perhaps wary of doing any further damage ahead of Wimbledon next week.

The circumstances may not have been ideal, but as a result Seppi was able to celebrate his first senior ATP Tour victory.

Both men were playing their second match of the day after Tipsarevic beat Japan's Kei Nishikori 6-2 6-4 in his semi-final earlier and Seppi eliminated Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-4 2-6 6-4.

Meanwhile, in the final of the UNICEF Open in the Netherlands, Russia's Dimitry Tursunov cruised to victory in the final against Ivan Dodig, saving all three break points he offered his Croatian opponent on the way to a 6-3 6-2 success.

With rain have affected the schedule, both men had also played their semi-finals earlier in the day. Dodig overcame Marcos Baghdatis (who had only just finished his quarter-final against Denis Gremelmayr) 7-6(4) 6-1, while Tursunov saw off Xavier Malisse 6-3 7-6(1)

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