MOSCOW, October 18 (R-Sport) – Reigning champion Andreas Seppi reached the Kremlin Cup semifinal on Friday when his quarterfinal opponent Edouard Roger-Vasselin withdrew with an apparent neck injury.
Second seed Seppi was 5-2 ahead in the first set when the Frenchman had to leave the court at the Olympiisky Sports Complex in Moscow. Match officials said the world No. 65 had strained his neck muscles in the warm-up and couldn't play more than 26 minutes.
"I think it happened during the warm-up, on his first serve of the match he couldn't serve normally," Seppi said. "It was strange, because at the beginning you don't know what was going on, so I just had to hit the ball and keep playing. I never want to win like this, but sometimes it happens."
In the semifinals, Seppi will face the winner of Friday's all-Kazakh clash between Andrey Golubev and Mikhail Kukushkin.
Roger-Vasselin, meanwhile, stops at the quarterfinal stage in the Russian capital for the second year in a row.
The Kremlin Cup is a hard-court ATP 250 and WTA Premier tournament with a prize fund of $746,750 for the men's event.
