Dudi Sela: Difference between revisions

Dudi Sela

Country (sports)	Israel
Residence	Tel Aviv, Israel
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8½ in)[1]
Plays	Right-handed; one-handed backhand
Prize money	US$893,130
Singles
Career record	43–44
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 33 (July 6, 2009)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	3R (2009)
French Open	2R (2009)
Wimbledon	4R (2009)
US Open	2R (2007)
Doubles
Career record	4–10
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 246 (January 7, 2008)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	1R (2008)
French Open	1R (2008)
Wimbledon	1R (2009)
US Open	–
Last updated on: June 22, 2009.

David "Dudi" Sela (Hebrew: דודי סלע; born April 4, 1985, in Kiryat Shmona, Israel) is an Israeli professional tennis player.

Sela reached a career-high singles ranking of # 33 in July 2009. He is currently Israel's top men's singles player, ahead of Harel Levy and Noam Okun. He is right-handed, and at 5' 8½" he is one of the shortest players on the tour.^[1][2][3][4]

As a 17-year-old junior, he won the 2003 French Open boys' doubles championship with his doubles partner. His peak junior rankings were # 12 in singles, and # 16 in doubles. Representing Israel in the Davis Cup, his highlight has been an upset win in 2007 over world # 7 Fernando González. In 2008 he beat world # 5 David Ferrer in straight sets. In 2009, through June he had won seven matches against players ranked in the top 50 in the world.

Sela's father Michael, a bus driver, and mother Anca, a nurse, immigrated to Israel from Romania.^[5][6] His family name was originally Sălăjean, but his father changed it so that it would be more easily pronounced in Israel. He grew up in the small city of Kiryat Shmona, on the Israel-Lebanon border.^[1]

At the age of two, Dudi, diminutive of David, had his hands on his first racket, and at the age of seven he began to play tennis.^[7][8] His tennis idols were his brother Ofer, who was a top 200 player, and the Israeli Amos Mansdorf.^[1][5] Sela spent hours as a junior studying tapes of Mansdorf, hoping to one day match his achievements.^[9]

In April 2000 Sela won his first title, the Haifa International title, with partner and countryman Idan Ben Harosh. In Corfu, Greece, Sela captured the doubles title, while narrowly losing the singles final.

In April 2001 he reached the Israel International singles final, and won the doubles title with Israeli Maor Zirkin. In July of the same year, he won his first singles title in Van Keeken of the Netherlands. The following month, at the Fischer Junior Open he won the singles, and also captured the doubles title with Michael Ryderstedt of Sweden.

In 2002, Sela enjoyed a strong showing in the Australian Open Junior Competition, reaching the quarterfinals. In April, he took home the Beaulieu Sur Mer trophy with a strong performance. In the French Open Juniors he cracked the final eight.

2003 was Sela's last year as a junior. He reached the semifinals of the 2003 US Open Junior Championships, before losing to Marcos Baghdatis. He also reached the Roland Garros Junior singles quarters for the second consecutive year, and won the French Open 2003 doubles title with partner Győrgy Balazazs of Hungary. In March 2003 he won the Australia F1 tournament in Tasmania. In July he triumphed at the Togliatti competition in Russia, resulting in his ATP ranking shooting up 103 places to 256.^[10]

At his peak as a junior player, he was ranked # 12 in the ITF singles rankings, and # 16 in the doubles.

His best results in 2004 were the semifinals at the Covington Challenger, and the quarterfinals in four other Challenger tournaments.^[5]

Sela had a successful year on the ATP Challenger circuit in 2005, winning tournaments in Vancouver, Canada, and Lexington, Kentucky, in consecutive weeks. He had a 21-11 record in Challengers.^[5]

In 2006 Sela won more USTA Pro Circuit singles titles than any other man – all at the Futures level – with five. He picked up consecutive wins twice during the year, at events in Claremont, California, and Costa Mesa, California, in September and in Waikoloa, Hawaii, and Honolulu in November. His other win came at a tournament in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the last week of October.^[11]

In January 2007, Sela qualified for the main draw of the 2007 Australian Open. In the first round he upset Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand, who was ranked # 56 in the world. In the second round, he lost to Marat Safin in five sets, despite starting by leading the Russian two sets to one. In April 2007, Sela lost in the semifinals in a Challenger tournament to Paul Baccanello in Lanzarote, Spain.

In July 2007 he lost in the finals of the Open Diputación in Cordoba, Spain. In the tournament he defeated # 47 ranked Albert Montañés 7–5, 6–4. Later in July, he won a challenger title in Togliatti, Russia, his fourth career title, beating Russia's Mikhail Ledovskikh 7–6 (3), 6–3 in the final.^[12]

Sela then qualified for the US Open. In the first round of the main draw he defeated Nicolas Lapentti, 5–7, 6–2, 6–1, 6–3, his fourth upset of a top 100 player in the first 8 months of the year. Lapentti was once ranked as high as # 6 in the world, but at the time of the match was ranked # 80. Sela lost to world # 23 Juan Mónaco in the second round, 6–4, 6–0, 6–7 (1), 6–4.

In October he first defeated world # 51 Juan Martín del Potro 2–6, 7–5, 6–3 at the Japan Open in Tokyo, followed by # 90 Boris Pašanski 6–2, 4–0, ret. Sela won the Seoul Challenger tournament later in October, winning all five of his matches in straight sets. The win lifted him to a career-high 73 in the world.^[13]

Sela had considered retiring before the start of 2008 if he did not make a breakthrough, but things came together. In October he said: "My target is to reach the top 70 within the next year."^[14]

He lost in the finals of the ATP Taiwan Challenge in Kaohsiung in November to Lu Yen-hsun, 6–3, 6–3, but won the doubles title together with Stephen Amritraj of India.^[15] He won the Keio Challenger in Yokohama the following week, losing only one set (in a tiebreaker). In December 2007, he had his revenge on Marat Safin in Saint Anton, with a straight-set win: 6-1, 6-4. It was his tenth win over a player in the top-100 in the year. For the year he compiled a 33-14 match record in Challenger play with two titles, went 10-5 (all on hard courts) in ATP level competition, and became the first Israeli man to finish in the top 100 since Harel Levy in 2001.^[5]

In the Australian Open, Sela won his first round match over qualifier Martin Slanar 6–2, 6–4, 6–2. He lost his second round to world # 24 Ivo Karlović 7–6 (5), 4–6, 3–6, 1–6.

In March at the Pacific Life Open he defeated world # 49 Nicolas Kiefer, 6–4, 6–7 (4), 6–3. Then at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami he defeated world # 48 Hyung-Taik Lee of Korea, 6-4, 6-3, and # 14 Tommy Robredo of Spain in the 2nd round, 7-6 (5), 6-1. He defeated world # 88 Robby Ginepri in April in Houston, 7-6 (5), 6-2. In May in Austria he defeated world # 80 Mischa Zverev of Germany 7-6 (2), 6-0. In July he won the Vancouver challenger, beating Kevin Kim in the final, 6-3, 6-0.

Sela was gravely disappointed by the failure of the Israel Olympic Committee to allow him to represent Israel at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.^[16] Despite the fact that Sela met the International Olympic Committee's criteria to play in the Olympics, and the Israel Tennis Federation recommended that he deserved to go, the Israel Olympic Committee refused to accept the recommendation.^[16] Sela said he learned he wasn't going to be permitted to go to the Olympics because "I wasn’t inside the top 50 ranked players.... I met the International Olympic Committee’s criteria. But they don’t want to send me, and I don’t understand why. It’s not like I’m 500th in the world, I’m 60th. When Nicolas Massu won the Olympics he was ranked 70th, so it shows anything can happen. I want to go and be the first Israeli to play in the men’s singles for 20 years."^[16]

In August Sela defeated world # 97 Vince Spadea of the United States 7-6 (6), 6-3 at the Legg Mason Classic in Washington.^[17] Later in the month he beat world # 99 Donald Young, 6-4, 6-2, in New Haven, Connecticut at the Pilot Pen tournament.

Sela reached his first ATP Tour final in September at the China Open, while ranked # 92. Sela, unseeded, defeated the world # 61 Frenchman Nicolas Devilder in the first round. In the second round, Sela upset the first seed and world # 5, David Ferrer, in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. Sela continued his run by defeating the sixth seed, world # 16 Tommy Robredo, 6-4, 6-1, and the seventh seed, world # 35 Rainer Schüttler, 6-3, 6-3. Sela was defeated by Andy Roddick in the final 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3. Sela became the first Israeli since Harel Levy in 2001 to reach an ATP final.^[5] "Dudi reached the final and realized he had it," said his brother Ofer. "He beat top-30 players day after day.... It was the first time he proved he was no paper tiger, but one who can dish it out to everyone. He always knew he had the potential, but suddenly he understood how to fulfill it."^[18]

In October, he defeated the world # 72 Victor Hănescu at the Kremlin Cup, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

By December 2008 Sela had slipped out of the top 100, however, and he was advised to skip his year-end vacation and play three Challenger tournaments that month. That way he could earn some money, return to the top 100, and qualify directly for the Australian Open.^[18] Instead, Sela chose to return to Israel for a month of training, and work on his weaknesses with his coach, Yoram Menahem.^[18] During that time he changed his stance and serve.^[18] "Many would have opted for the Challengers, and the safe money," said his brother Ofer seven months later, "but Dudi was very confident in his decision, and looking back he really matured with it. His career looks different now."^[18]

In the year's first Grand Slam, the Australian Open, Sela won three rounds of qualifiers in order to make the main draw. In the final round, Sela beat Grega Zemlja of Slovenia in dramatic fashion, surviving 6 match points to win 6-2, 2-6, 8-6.

In the main draw, Sela beat the 30th-seeded German veteran Rainer Schüttler, who was ranked # 31 in the world, 1-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. In the second round he defeated world # 44 Victor Hanescu of Romania, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2, saving all 12 of Hanescu's break points. He was the first Israeli man to reach the third round of a Grand Slam since Amos Mansdorf progressed to the round of 32 in Wimbledon in 1994.^[19] In the round of 32, however, Sela was defeated by fifth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-4, 6-2, 1-6, 6-1. Sela said: "I would like to finish this year in the top 60 or 50 in the world. I think it would be a good year if I finish somewhere like that. I'm just going to keep learning."^[20]

In February at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis, Sela made it through two rounds of qualifying matches, and then as far as the semifinals. Along the way he beat world # 92 Robert Kendrick 6-4, 6-4, world # 73 Bobby Reynolds 7-6 (4), 6-2, world # 54 Florent Serra of France, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4), and world # 43 Igor Kunitsyn of Russia 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. With that, he raised his world ranking to # 65. In late February at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships in Delray Beach, Florida he beat world # 80 Philipp Petzschner of Germany, 6-3, 4-1, ret. In March he defeated world # 42 Jose Acasuso at the BMW Tennis Championship, but withdrew in his next match after suffering a leg injury.

In May he reached a new career-high world ranking of # 55. That month he won his first round match at the 2009 French Open , his first French Open victory ever, against Jean-Rene Lisnard of Monaco, 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.^[21] In June 2009 at the Ordina Open he defeated world # 59 Christophe Rochus 6-2, 6-4, and at 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands in a grass-court tuneup for Wimbledon he beat world # 39 Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 6-3. He again reached a career-high singles ranking, this time # 46.

In the 1st round at Wimbledon Sela defeated Mexican Santiago Gonzalez, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3. In the 2nd round, he upset 2008 semifinalist, world # 29 German Rainer Schüttler, seeded 18th, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2.^[22] In the match Sela produced an exciting array of shots, and exhibited a fierce backhand as well as more subtle drop shots.^[23]

In the 3rd round Sela was urged on by a contingent of supporters who for much of the first two sets chanted a Hebrew song, translated roughly as: "David, King of Israel is alive and lives on!"^[25] Sela combined solid ground strokes that included a potent backhand with a series of increasingly effective rushes of the net to defeat world # 15 Tommy Robredo of Spain, seeded 15th, 7-6 (8), 7-5, 2-6, 7-5; he is now 3-0 lifetime against Robredo.^{[25][26][27][28]} Al Jazeera described the upset as a "shock result".^[29] That advanced Sela to the round of 16, his first Grand Slam 4th round, which The Independent described as the "suprise of the week".^{[25][30][31][32]} Sela became the first Israeli man in 20 years (since Amos Mansdorf in 1989) to reach the 4th round at Wimbledon, and fourth Israeli man ever (and first since Mansdorf at the 1992 Australian Open) to reach the 4th round in a Grand Slam.^[9][33] The victory guaranteed him a payday of at least $80,000.^[34][3]

Sela next sought to join Shlomo Glickstein (1981 Australian Open), Mansdorf (1992 Australian Open), and Shahar Pe'er (2007 Australian Open and 2007 US Open) as the only Israelis to have made it to a Grand Slam quarterfinal.^[35] He was defeated, however, by the 2008 Australian Open champion, world # 4 Serbian Novak Djokovic, in the 4th round, 6-2, 6-4, 6-1. On the strength of his Wimbledon performance, Sela rose to a career-high world # 33 in July 2009. Commenting on his career-high ranking, Sela said: "This is one of the happiest days of my life."^[36]

In late 2005, he joined the Israeli Davis Cup team. He is 12-5 through July 2009.^[37]

In April 2007 he upset Andreas Seppi, ranked # 91 in the world, 6–3, 7–5, 1–6, 3–6, 6–3, as Israel defeated Italy.

Before the Chile-Israel Davis Cup match began in September 2007, even The Jewish Chronicle wrote: "Led by Fernando González (6) and Nicolás Massú (72), it is hard to see Israel’s Dudi Sela (105) and Noam Okun (186), backed up by doubles specialists Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich, winning the contest. González and Massú are also a formidable doubles partnership, having won the Olympic gold medal in Athens in 2004."^[38]

That same month, before playing Nicolás Massú of Chile in the first match of the tie, Sela said: "We like being the underdog. I'm very pleased with the fact that I'm playing first and I'm very confident of claiming the win."^[39] He then proceeded to upset Massu, ranked # 72 in the world, and formerly ranked # 9 in the world, in a 5-hour 7-minute match, 6–3, 6–4, 6–7 (3), 6–4. "This is definitely the biggest win in my career", Sela said afterwards.^[40]

Later in that Davis Cup tie, Dudi Sela defeated # 7 in the world Fernando González 4–6, 7–6 (5), 5–7, 7–6 (7), 6–3 in a 5-hour 1-minute match. It is arguably the greatest tennis match ever played in Israel.^[42] The victory lifted Israel over Chile and into 2008's World Group. Gonzalez was at the time the highest-ranked player Sela had ever beaten in his career (he later beat world # 5 David Ferrer in Beijing in September 2008),^[43] and his 6th upset of a top-100 player in the first 9 months of the year. Elated, Sela said "This is definitely the happiest day of my life." Sela was congratulated over the phone by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres after the match.^[44]

In the 2008 World Group, Israel hosted Sweden in Ramat HaSharon.^[45] Sela started with a win against world # 71 Jonas Björkman 7–6, 6–3, 6–1, and gave Israel an advantage of 1–0. He then lost to world # 60 Thomas Johansson 7–6 (6), 6–1, 7–5, as Israel lost the tie 3–2. In the 2008 World Group Playoffs, Sela led the Israeli team to a 4-1 victory over Peru at Ramat Hasharon. Sela won both his singles contests, defeating Iván Miranda and Luis Horna.

In the 2009 World Group Playoffs in March 2009, Israel again faced seven-time Davis Cup champion Sweden. An amusing moment occurred during Sela's opening match when the Israeli fans, to the Que Sera, Sera tune of the Doris Day hit song from the 1950s, sang "Dudi Sela, Sela, whatever will be will be."^[46] Sela led the Israeli team to a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the 7-time Davis Cup champion Swedes^[47] at Baltic Hall in Malmo, Sweden, to advance in the 2009 Davis Cup. Sela won each of his singles matches in 5 sets, coming from behind to defeat Andreas Vinciguerra in his hometown 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 11-9, and came from behind to stun 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson 3-6, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Sela views it as the biggest win of his career to that point.^[1] In their 84-year Davis Cup history, the Swedes had never before lost a tie after holding a 2-1 lead. The last time Israel's Davis Cup team reached the level of being one the top eight tennis nations in the world was in 1987, against India.^[48]

Israel (ranked 8th in the Davis Cup standings, with 5,394 points) hosted heavily favored Russia (which won in both 2002 and 2006, and was the top-ranked country in Davis Cup standings, with 27,897 points) in a Davis Cup quarterfinal tie in July 2009, on indoor hard courts at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv.^[49][50] Israel was represented by Sela, Harel Levy, Jonathan Erlich, and Andy Ram. Russia's lineup consisted of Marat Safin (# 60 in the world; former world # 1), Igor Andreev (24), Igor Kunitsyn (35), and Mikhail Youzhny (69; former world # 8).^[51][52] Sela said before the tie: "We feel we can beat the Russians."^[53] The stage was then set by Safin, who prior to the tie told the press: "With all due respect, Israel was lucky to get to the quarterfinals."^[54] The Israeli team's response was to beat the Russian team in each of their first three matches, thereby winning the tie. Levy, world # 210, beat Russia's top player, Andreev, world # 24, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 in the opening match. Sela (# 33) followed by beating Russian Youzhny 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, 7-5. Israeli captain Eyal Ran likened his players to two fighter jets on court, saying: "I felt as if I had two F-16s out there today, they played amazingly well." The 10,500 spectators were the largest crowd ever for a tennis match in Israel.^[55] The next day Israelis Ram and Erlich beat Safin and Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 4-6, 6-4 in front of a boisterous crowd of over 10,000.^[56] Even the Saudi Gazette described the doubles match as a "thrilling" win.^[57] Ran was carried shoulder-high around the Tel Aviv stadium, as the 10,000-strong crowd applauded.^[58] With the tie clinched for Israel, the reverse singles rubbers were "dead", and instead of best-of-five matches, best-of-three sets were played, with the outcomes of little to no importance.^[59] Israel wrapped up a 4-1 victory over Russia, as Levy defeated Kunitsyn 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (2), while Sela retired with a wrist injury while down 3-4 in the first set against Andreev.^[60] Israel will next face Rafael Nadal and the rest of the the Spanish Davis Cup team in Marbella, Spain on September 18-20, in Israel's first appearance in the Davis Cup semifinals.^[61]

Sela is very fast, and viewed as a serve and volleyer by some.^[3]

During his career he has also been coached by his brother Ofer Sela, Australian-born former Israeli Davis Cup coach Ron Steele, and Israelis Noam Behr, Yoav Shab, and Yoram Menahem.

Sela, along with Wayne Odesnik, Jesse Levine, Sergio Roitman and Shahar Pe'er are one of a number of young Jewish tennis players who are highly ranked.^{[62][63][64][65][66]} "It’s very special being able to play around the world," Sela said. "It is fun playing in different places because Jewish people will come out to watch me."^[1][9][67]

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	July 14, 2003	Togliatti	Hard	Juan Pablo Brzezicki	6–2 6–4
2.	July 25, 2005	Lexington	Hard	Bobby Reynolds	6–3 3–6 6–4
3.	August 1, 2005	Vancouver	Hard	Paul Baccanello	6–2 6–3
4.	July 16, 2007	Togliatti	Hard	Mikhail Ledovskikh	7–6 6–3
5.	October 22, 2007	Seoul	Hard	Konstantinos Economidis	6–4 6–4
6.	November 19, 2007	Yokohama	Hard	Takao Suzuki	6–7 6–4 6–2
7.	July 28, 2008	Vancouver	Hard	Kevin Kim	6–3 6–0

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	July 2, 2007	Cordoba	Hard	Adrián Menéndez	4–6 6–0 5–7
2.	November 12, 2007	Kaohsiung	Hard	Yen-Hsun Lu	3–6 3–6
3.	September 28, 2008	Beijing	Hard	Andy Roddick	4–6 7–6(6) 3–6

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dudi Sela.

• Dudi Sela at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Dudi Sela at the Davis Cup
• Template:ITF junior profile
• Sela Recent Match Results
• Sela World Ranking History

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