Thiago Seyboth Wild proves sportsmanship is still alive in match against Luca Nardi

Seyboth Wild played Nardi at the Tiriac Open.
Al Bello/GettyImages
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The Tiriac Open might not be the biggest tennis tournament in the world, but to those who play in Bucharest, the event is pretty important, of course. Plus, sometimes in smaller tournaments, the bigger moments stand out more. People may not be focused on the names involved but in the quality of the tennis. Or in the case of the Thiago Seyboth Wild and Luca Nardi first-round match, the quality of the people involved.

Nardi, of course, is the same player who shocked Novak Djokovic early at the Indian Wells Masters. Nardi had been lucky enough to get through qualifying in which to eventually face Djokovic. The Italian then came up with one of the more surprising upsets in recent years when he defeated the Serb in three sets.

Seyboth Wild is a popular player from Brazil. During a recent match at the Miami Open, he was playing American Taylor Fritz but the crowd seemed firmly behind the Brazilian. Fritz even had to complain to the chair umpire about the crowd noise even though he was an American playing in a tournament in the United States, the crowd was rooting for his foreign opponent.

Thiago Seyboth Wild shows real class in a match against Luca Nardi

The match between Nardi and Seyboth Wild on Monday was well-played by both players and each had bombastic serves. Throughout the second set, for instance, both players held serve to force a tie-break that went 7-5 in favor of the 20-year-old Nardi. Nardi, who had lost in the first set 3-6, then seemingly gained control of the match in the third set and had five match points. He lost each of those, however.

After losing the points and Nardi still holding a lead at 5-3 with Seyboth Wild serving a deuce, the Brazilian hit a backhand to the Italian's right but Nardi's ankle gave out and he crumpled on the court. Seyboth Wild did not just stand and watch what would happen with Nardi, though. Instead, he grabbed a chair from the side of the court and brought it over to Nardi so that Nardi would not have to walk far on his ankle after suffering the injury. That is called class, ladies and gentlemen.

Nardi was able to continue playing after several minutes, but he would only win one more game as Seyboth Wild came back to take the match 7-6(2) in the third set. Nardi gave thanks to Seyboth Wild as the two players met at the net at the end of the match.

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