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.
At age 18, Sela was exempted from conscription into the Israel Defense Forces.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
In October he first defeated world #51 Juan Martín del Potro at the Japan Open in Tokyo, followed by #90 Boris Pašanski. 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.
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.Wei-ming, Liang "Lu Yen-hsun wins Taiwan Challenge," Taipei Times, 19 November 2007, accessed 26 June 2009 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.
2008: Breaking top 60 & first ATP final
In the Australian Open, Sela won his first round match over qualifier Martin Slanar but lost his second round to world #24 Ivo Karlović.
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 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."
In August Sela defeated world #97 Vince Spadea of the United States at the Legg Mason Classic in Washington. Later in the month he beat world #99 Donald Young, 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. 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."
In October, he defeated the world #72 Victor Hănescu at the Kremlin Cup.
2009: Breaking top 30
In the Australian Open, Sela won three rounds of qualifiers in order to make the main draw. In the final round, Sela beat Grega Žemlja of Slovenia in dramatic fashion, surviving six match points.
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 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 number 92 Robert Kendrick, world number 73 Bobby Reynolds, world number 54 Florent Serra of France, and world number 43 Igor Kunitsyn of Russia. With that, he raised his world ranking to number 65. In late February at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, he beat world number 80 Philipp Petzschner of Germany. In March, he defeated world number 42 José 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 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.Haaretz Sports Staff, "Tennis/French Open/Dudi Sela smashes into second round," Haaretz, 26 May 2009, accessed 26 June 2009 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.
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.Sinai, Allon, and Sherwood, Andrew, "Pe'er and Sela both advance to 2nd round at Wimbledon," The Jerusalem Post, 6/22/09, accessed 6/26/09
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!" Sela defeated world number 15 Tommy Robredo of Spain, seeded fifteenth; he is now 3–0 lifetime against Robredo.Herman, Martyn, "Wimbledon-Israeli's cheer as Sela reaches fourth round," Reuters, 26 June 2009, accessed 26 June 2009Dirs, Ben, "Fish v Djokovic as it happened," BBC, 26 June 2009, accessed 26 June 2009 Al Jazeera described the upset as a "shock result"."Wimbledon blog: Round Three," Al Jazeera, 27 June 2009, accessed 27 June 2009 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.Sela reaches 4th round at Wimbledon," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 26 June 2009, accessed 26 June 2009 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.