Dudi Sela

David "Dudi" Sela (; born 4 April 1985) is an Israeli former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 29 in July 2009.

Sela won the French Open 2003 junior doubles title. Representing Israel in the Davis Cup, his highlights include a win in 2007 over then-world No. 7 Fernando González, and being a key player in Israel's semifinal run in 2009. In 2008 he beat world No. 5 David Ferrer in straight sets, and in 2010 he beat world No. 7 Andy Roddick in straight sets. Sela reached the fourth round of the 2009 Wimbledon Championships and has finished runner-up in two ATP tournaments in Beijing and Atlanta. In 2015, he won his 24th career ATP Challenger event of his career, moving him into second place on the all-time list of Challenger title wins (behind Lu Yen-hsun).

Early life Sela was born and raised in Kiryat Shmona, an Israeli city near the Israel-Lebanon border. His father Michael, a bus driver, and mother Anca, a nurse from a Jewish family, immigrated to Israel from Romania. His family name was originally Sălăjean, but his father changed it so that it would be more easily pronounced in Israel.

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. His tennis idols were his brother Ofer, who was a top 200 player, and the Israeli Amos Mansdorf.

Juniors: 2000–03

Sela played his first junior match in 1999 at the age of 14 at a grade 5 tournament in Greece. In 2000 Sela won in doubles play with Idan Ben-Harosh in the Haifa International and in Corfu, Greece. In 2001 he won in doubles with Maor Zirkin reached the finals in singles play at the Israel International. He won his first singles title in Van Keeken of the Netherlands. He won in both singles and doubles (with Michael Ryderstedt) at the Fischer Junior Open.

In 2002, Sela reached the quarterfinals in the Australian Open Junior Competition and was in the top eight at the French Open Juniors. He won at Beaulieu Sur Mer. In 2003, his final year as a junior, he reached the quarterfinals at the Roland Garros Junior singles competition and won the French Open 2003 doubles title with partner Győrgy Balázs of Hungary.

Sela's highest junior world rankings were No. 9 in the ITF singles rankings (in 2002) and No. 16 in doubles.

Junior Grand Slam results – Singles:

Australian Open: QF (2002) French Open: QF (2002, 2003) Wimbledon: 2R (2003) US Open: SF (2003)

Junior Grand Slam results – Doubles:

Australian Open: 1R (2002) French Open: W (2003) Wimbledon: 1R (2003) US Open: SF (2002)

Pro career

2004–06: Top 200

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

2007: Breaking top 100 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 Córdoba, Spain. In the tournament he defeated #47 ranked Albert Montañés. Later in July, he won a challenger title in Togliatti, Russia, his fourth career title, beating Russia's Mikhail Ledovskikh in the final.

Sela then qualified for the US Open. In the first round of the main draw he defeated Nicolás Lapentti, 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.

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."

He lost in the finals of the ATP Taiwan Challenge in Kaohsiung in November to Lu Yen-hsun, but won the doubles title together with Stephen Amritraj of India. 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. 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. Despite the fact that Sela met the International Olympic Committee's criteria to play in the Olympics, and the Israel Tennis Association recommended that he deserved to go, the Israel Olympic Committee refused to accept the recommendation. Later in the month he beat world #99 Donald Young, in New Haven, Connecticut at the Pilot Pen tournament.

In October, he defeated the world #72 Victor Hănescu at the Kremlin Cup.

In the main draw, Sela beat 30th-seeded German veteran Rainer Schüttler, who was ranked number 31 in the world. In the second round, he defeated world number 44 Victor Hănescu of Romania, saving all 12 of Hănescu'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. In the round of 32, however, Sela was defeated by fifth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. In June at the Ordina Open, he defeated world number 59 Christophe Rochus, and at 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands in a grass-court tuneup for Wimbledon, he beat world number 39 Igor Kunitsyn.

In the third 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!" Al Jazeera described the upset as a "shock result". That advanced Sela to the round of 16, his first Grand Slam 4th round, which The Independent described as the "surprise of the week". Sela became the first Israeli man in 20 years (since Amos Mansdorf in 1989) to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon, and the fourth Israeli man ever (and first since Mansdorf at the 1992 Australian Open) to reach the fourth round in a Grand Slam. The victory guaranteed him a payday of at least $80,000.

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. He was defeated in the fourth round, however, by the 2008 Australian Open champion, then-world number 4 Serbian Novak Djokovic. Following his victory in the Davis Cup against Russia the next week, he rose again to a new career high, this time number 29, one better than the career-high of Davis Cup teammate Harel Levy.

In late July, Sela was seeded second for the 2009 Indianapolis Tennis Championships in singles. In doubles, Sela partnered American Jesse Levine and defeated Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan and Josselin Ouanna of France to make it to the quarterfinals.

2010: Challenger tour success On 10 June 2010, at the 2010 Aegon Championships, Sela upset number 4 seed, and world number 7, Andy Roddick in straight sets. He won the Rhodes Challenger in May, defeating former top ten player Rainer Schüttler.

In March 2013, Dudi Sela reached the Round of 64 at the Miami Masters, where he lost 2–6 4–6 to world number 9 ranked player Janko Tipsarević.

In January 2014, Sela reached the Quarterfinals of the Chennai Open in India beating Lukáš Lacko and Mikhail Youzhny before losing to Edouard Roger Vasselin. In the first round of the Australian Open, Dudi lost to Jarkko Nieminen 6–3, 6–7(3), 7–6(3), 3–6, 3–6. In May 2015 he won in Batman, Turkey, defeating Blaž Kavčič in the final, in August 2015 he won in Vancouver, Canada, defeating John-Patrick Smith in the final, and in November 2015 he won in Suzhou, China.

2016: Return to top 60 & first doubles title At the 2016 Australian Open, he defeated Benjamin Becker in the first round, then defeated Fernando Verdasco (who had defeated Rafael Nadal in the first round in five sets) in four before losing to Andrey Kuznetsov in the third. After the Australian Open Sela was in bad shape and lost 4 consecutive matches, including a match against Péter Nagy who was ranked 612. However, in March he had three successful Challengers, including two semi-finals (Guangzhou, Ra'anana) and one title (Shenzhen).

He represented Israel in men's singles at the 2016 Summer Olympics where he defeated Damir Džumhur in the first round but lost to 8th seed David Goffin in the second round.

2017: Wimbledon run, Yom Kippur retirement In 2017, Sela reached one semifinal and two quarterfinals on the ATP Tour, and won two more Challenger Tour titles. In January he won in Canberra, Australia, defeating Jan-Lennard Struff in the final, and in June he won in Nottingham, Great Britain, defeating Thomas Fabbiano in the final.

Sela concluded the year with his highest year-end ranking in eight years, at No. 67 in the world. As a result of this, Sela's ranking increased from 208 to 164 in the world. He also made the final of the 2019 Cassis Challenger in September but lost to top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in just 43 minutes winning only one game in the process which set a record for the shortest challenger match.

Sela received a wildcard into the main draw of the 2019 St. Petersburg Open but lost in the first round to Ričardas Berankis in straight sets. It would be his last ATP match to date.

For the first time since 2006, Sela failed to record an ATP win during the entire year marking a severe dip in form.

2020: Inactivity due to COVID-19 Sela failed to record a win at any level during the year. After the COVID-19 pandemic suspended tennis in March, he decided to remain inactive for the rest of 2020 even when tennis returned in August.

2021: Wimbledon qualifying draw and positive COVID-19 test In 2021, Sela played his first match in over a year when he entered the qualifying draw of the 2021 Wimbledon Championships as a protected ranking. He defeated British wildcard Stuart Parker in the first round before losing in the second round to 5th seed Yasutaka Uchiyama in three sets. He also entered the qualifying draw of the 2021 US Open but later withdrew due to testing positive for COVID-19 and was replaced by Jesper de Jong.

2022: All Majors qualifying draws participation, Retirement

In January, he announced his plans to retire after the 2022 season.

Sela began his 2022 season with a protected ranking entry into the qualifying draw of the 2022 Australian Open where he lost in the first round to Mario Vilella Martínez in straight sets.

He played his last US Open as a qualifier where he lost in the first round of qualifying to Kaichi Uchida.

Davis Cup

In late 2005, he joined the Israeli Davis Cup team. He is 12–6 through July 2009.

In April 2007 he upset Andreas Seppi, ranked #91 in the world, 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."

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." 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. "This is definitely the biggest win in my career", Sela said afterwards. Later in that Davis Cup tie, Dudi Sela defeated #7 in the world Fernando González in a 5-hour 1-minute match. It is arguably the greatest tennis match ever played in Israel. 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), 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.

In the 2008 World Group, Israel hosted Sweden in Ramat HaSharon. Sela started with a win against world #71 Jonas Björkman and gave Israel an advantage of 1–0. He then lost to world #60 Thomas Johansson 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. Sela led the Israeli team to a come-from-behind 3–2 victory over the Swedes at Baltic Hall in Malmö, 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 and came from behind to stun 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson. Sela views it as the biggest win of his career to that point.

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. 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). Sela said before the tie: "We feel we can beat the Russians." 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." 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 in the opening match. Sela (#33) followed by beating Russian Youzhny. 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. The next day Israelis Ram and Erlich beat Safin and Kunitsyn in front of a boisterous crowd of over 10,000. Even the Saudi Gazette described the doubles match as a "thrilling" win. Ran was carried shoulder-high around the Tel Aviv stadium, as the 10,000-strong crowd applauded. 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. Israel wrapped up a 4–1 victory over Russia, as Levy defeated Kunitsyn, while Sela retired with a wrist injury while down 3–4 in the first set against Andreev. Israel, however, lost to Spain in the semi-finals, 4–1.

Playing style Sela's playing style is very fast, aggressive and viewed as a serve and volleyer by some. "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."

Sela enjoys support outside of Israel from his fan brigade, known as the "Hebrew Hammer", whose chanting in both English and Hebrew aims to replicate the raucous atmosphere of tennis matches in Tel Aviv that helped him defeat the likes of González in arguably his most historic victory. Originating at the LA Tennis Open in 2008, the Hebrew Hammer has been spotlit on telecasts by the Tennis Channel.

Personal life Sela has three children with his wife Marina, son Elai, daughter Talia and son Roy. He has a brother, Ofer Sela (b. 1972).

ATP career finals

Singles: 2 (2 runner-ups) LegendGrand Slam tournaments (0–0)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–0)ATP World Tour 250 Series (0–2)Titles by surfaceHard (0–2)Clay (0–0)Grass (0–0)Titles by settingOutdoor (0–2)Indoor (0–0)

Doubles: 1 (1 title) LegendGrand Slam tournaments (0–0)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–0)ATP World Tour 250 Series (1–0)Titles by surfaceHard (0–0)Clay (1–0)Grass (0–0)Titles by settingOutdoor (1–0)Indoor (0–0)

Challenger and Futures finals

Singles: 42 (30–12) Legend (singles)ATP Challenger Tour Finals (0–1)ATP Challenger Tour (23–10)ITF Futures Tour (7–1)Titles by surfaceHard (28–11)Clay (0–1)Grass (2–0)Carpet (0–0)

Doubles: 12 (6–6) Legend (doubles)ATP Challenger Tour (5–5)ITF Futures Tour (1–1)Titles by surfaceHard (6–5)Clay (0–1)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)

Junior Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

Performance timelines

Singles 1 Held as Hamburg Masters (clay) until 2008, Madrid Masters (clay) 2009–present.

2 Held as Madrid Masters (indoor hardcourt) from 2002 to 2008, Shanghai Masters (outdoor hardcourt) 2009–present.

Doubles Current as far as the 2018 Australian Open.

Wins over top 10 players

Record vs. No. 1 ranked players 0-1

0-4

0-4

1-1

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0-3

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