Sousa upsets third-seed Seppi at Croatia Open

Portugal's Joao Sousa returns the ball. (David Vincent/AP)

UMAG, Croatia — Portugal’s Joao Sousa upset third-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi 6-2, 6-2 in the second round of the Croatia Open on Wednesday.

Sousa played steadily from the baseline as Seppi made a number of unforced errors. Sousa converted six out of nine break points to win in just 69 minutes.

Seppi broke early in both sets but then lost several games in a row. He won only 29 per cent of points on second serve as Sousa returned strongly.

Sousa will next play fifth-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy, who beat Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia-Herzegovina 6-3, 7-5.

Fognini came back from being 1-4 down in the second set to win in straight sets. He was a runner-up in Umag in 2013 and a semifinalist on three more occasions.

In the remaining first round matches on Wednesday, Dusan Lajovic defeated fellow Serb Laslo Djere 6-3, 6-3, while Blaz Kavic of Slovenia beat 17-year-old wild card entrant Andrey Rublev of Russia 7-6 (0), 2-6, 6-3.

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.