Dudi Sela
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| Country |  Israel |
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| Residence | Tel Aviv, Israel | |
| Date of birth | April 4, 1985 | |
| Place of birth | Kiryat Shmona, Israel | |
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) | |
| Weight | 66 kg (150 lb/10.4 st) | |
| Turned pro | 2002 | |
| Plays | Right-handed; one-handed backhand | |
| Career prize money | US$350,792 | |
| Singles | ||
| Career record: | 14-16 | |
| Career titles: | 0 | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 57 (April 28, 2008) | |
| Grand Slam results | ||
| Australian Open | 2nd (2007, 2008) | |
| French Open | 1st (2005, 2008) | |
| Wimbledon | -- | |
| US Open | 2nd (2007) | |
| Doubles | ||
| Career record: | 2–4 | |
| Career titles: | 0 | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 246 (January 7, 2008) | |
Dudi Sela (Hebrew: דודי סלע; born April 4, 1985, in Kiryat Shmona, Israel) is a professional tennis player.
Sela reached a career-high singles ranking of # 57 in April 2008. He is currently Israel's top men's singles player, ahead of fellow countrymen Harel Levy and Noam Okun.
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[edit] Tennis career
At his peak as a junior player, he was ranked # 12 in the ITF singles rankings, and # 16 in the doubles. His best achievements were winning the Roland Garros 2003 doubles title while partnering Gyorgy Balazs and making the 2003 US Open singles semifinals before losing to Marcos Baghdatis.
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.
[edit] Pro career
He turned pro in 2002.
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.
He also reached the Roland Garros Junior quarters for the second consecutive year. He also captured the doubles title with partner Gyorgy Balazazs of Hungary.
In March 2003 he won the Australia F1 tournament in Tasmania. In July he triumphed at the Togliatti competition in Russia.
[edit] 2005
Sela had a successful year on the ATP challenger circuit in 2005, winning tournaments in Vancouver, Canada, and Lexington, Kentucky, in consecutive weeks.
[edit] 2006
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 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the last week of October.[1]
[edit] 2007
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 leading the Russian two sets to one.
In April 2007, Sela lost in the semifinals in a challenger level tournament to Paul Baccanello in Lanzarote, Spain.
In July 2007 he lost in the finals in Cordoba, Spain. In the tournament he defeated # 47 ranked Albert Montanes 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.[2]
Sela qualified for the US Open, as he was seeded 11th in the qualifying singles. He won all three of his qualifying matches -- in the first round he defeated Nathan Healey of Australia, 6–4, 6–7 (3), 7–6 (4),[3] in the second round he defeated Ryler de Heart of the US, 6–3, 6–3, and in the third round he easily knocked off No. 29 Adrian Garcia of Chile, 6–0, 6–1.[4] 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 Martin Del Potro 2–6, 7–5, 6–3 at the Japan Open in Tokyo, followed by # 90 Boris Pašanski 6–2, 4–0, ret. They were his 7th and 8th upsets of top-100 players in the first 10 months of the year.
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.[5]
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."[6]
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 Armitraj of India.[7]
He won the Keio Challenger in Yokohama the following week, losing only one set (in a tiebreaker).
In December of 2007, he had his revenge on Marat Safin in Saint Anton, with a straight set win: 6-1, 6-4. This was his tenth win over a player in the top-100, in the year.
[edit] 2008
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 Karlovic 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 and then lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the 2nd round. Then at 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. In the 3rd round he lost to world # 45 Jose Acasuso of Argentina 6-4 6-4.
He is now ranked 59th in the world.
[edit] Davis Cup
In late 2005, he joined the Israeli Davis Cup team. He is 6–4 in 2005-07.[8]
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.
In September 2007, before playing Nicolas Massu of Chile in the first match of the tie, he 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."[9] 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.[10]
| "Something changed in me at the end of the fourth set. Suddenly, I felt I was entering the zone. I was in a world of my own, and I simply didn't pay any attention to what was happening around me. I was just concentrated on my game. I felt so good that I was afraid it would end. Because I wanted to stay in the zone at any price I started to play real fast. I didn't wait in between points, which is usually not a good move, but at that stage the only thing on my mind was how to keep my zone, and that was it."[11] | |
| — Sela, commenting on his Davis Cup match against Gonzalez | |
Later in that Davis Cup tie, Dudi Sela defeated # 7 in the world Fernando Gonzalez 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.[12] The victory lifted Israel over Chile and into 2008's World Group. Gonzalez was the highest-ranked player Sela had ever beaten in his career,[13] 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.[14]
In the 2008 World Group, Israel hosted Sweden in Ramat HaSharon.[15]. Dudi Sela started with a win against world # 71 Jonas Bjorkman 7–6,6–3,6–1 and gave Israel 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.
[edit] Singles Titles
| Legend (Singles) |
| Grand Slam (0) |
| Tennis Masters Cup (0) |
| ATP Masters Series (0) |
| ATP Tour (0) |
| Challengers (6) |
| 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 |
[edit] Miscellaneous
- His brother and coach is Ofer Sela. During his career Dudi has also been coached by Australian-born former Israeli Davis Cup coach Ron Steele, as well as Israeli Noam Behr.
