Dudi Sela

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Dudi Sela Biography

Israeli tennis player who was ranked as Israel’s top male singles player in November 2014. Among his career highlights are upset victories in the Davis Cup over highly-ranked opponents like Fernando Gonzalez, David Ferrer and Andy Roddick.

He began playing tennis at age 7 and studied tapes of his idol, the great Israeli tennis player Amos Mansdorf.

After defeating Fernando Gonzalez at the Davis Cup, he received congratulatory phone calls from the likes of Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

His father Michael was a bus driver. His mother Anca was a nurse. He has been coached by his brother Ofer.

He and Shahar Pe’er are two of the biggest Jewish tennis stars in the world.

In March at the Pacific Life Open he defeated world #49 Nicolas Kiefer, then at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami he defeated world #48 Hyung-Taik Lee of Korea, and #14 Tommy Robredo of Spain in the 2nd round. In May in Austria he defeated world #80 Mischa Zverev of Germany and in July he won the Vancouver challenger, beating Kevin Kim in the final.

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

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.

David “Dudi” Sela (Hebrew: דודי סלע ‎; born April 4, 1985) is an Israeli professional tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 29 in July 2009. As of January 2018, Sela is Israel’s top men’s singles player.

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 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.

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. Sela continued his run by defeating the sixth seed, world #16 Tommy Robredo, and the seventh seed, world #35 Rainer Schüttler. Sela was defeated by Andy Roddick in the final. Sela became the first Israeli since Harel Levy in 2001 to reach an ATP final. “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.”

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.

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

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. He made it to the semifinals at the US Open Junior Championships and won the Australia F1 tournament in Tasmania. In July he triumphed at the Togliatti competition in Russia, resulting in a new ATP ranking of 256.

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

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

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.

In 2006 Sela five USTA Pro Circuit singles titles: at Claremont, California, Costa Mesa, California, Waikoloa, Hawaii, Honolulu, and at the Price LeBlanc Lexus Pro Tennis Classic in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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.”

In April 2007 he upset Andreas Seppi, ranked #91 in the world, as Israel defeated Italy.

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.

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.

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.

Representing Israel in the Davis Cup, highlights include an upset win in 2007 over World No. 7 Fernando González and being a key factor 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 Challenger event of his career, moving him into sole possession of second place on the all-time list of Challenger title wins.

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.

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.

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 first round at Wimbledon, Sela defeated Mexican Santiago González and in the second round, he upset 2008 semifinalist, world number 29 German Rainer Schüttler, seeded eighteenth.

Sela was gravely disappointed by the failure of the Israel Olympic Committee to allow him to represent Israel at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. 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. 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 Nicolás Massú 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.”

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.”

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.”

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.

On the strength of his Wimbledon performance, Sela rose to a career-high world number 33 in July 2009. 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 May, he reached a new career-high world ranking of number 55. That month, he won his first round match at the 2009 French Open, his first French Open victory ever, against Jean-René Lisnard of Monaco. 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. He again reached a career-high singles ranking, this time number 46.

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