56 Facts About Dudi Sela

David "Dudi" Sela is an Israeli former professional tennis player.

Dudi Sela reached a career-high singles ranking of World No 29 in July 2009.

Dudi Sela was born and raised in Kiryat Shmona, an Israeli city near the Israel-Lebanon border.

Dudi Sela's tennis idols were his brother Ofer, who was a top 200 player, and the Israeli Amos Mansdorf.

At age 18, Dudi Sela was exempted from conscription into the Israel Defense Forces.

Dudi Sela played his first junior match in 1999 at the age of 14 at a grade 5 tournament in Greece.

In 2000 Dudi Sela won in doubles play with Idan Ben-Harosh in the Haifa International and in Corfu, Greece.

Dudi Sela won his first singles title in Van Keeken of the Netherlands.

Dudi Sela won in both singles and doubles at the Fischer Junior Open.

In 2002, Dudi Sela reached the quarterfinals in the Australian Open Junior Competition and was in the top eight at the French Open Juniors.

Dudi Sela made it to the semifinals at the US Open Junior Championships and won the Australia F1 tournament in Tasmania.

Dudi Sela had a successful year on the ATP Challenger circuit in 2005, winning tournaments in Vancouver, Canada, and Lexington, Kentucky, in consecutive weeks.

Dudi Sela had considered retiring before the start of 2008 if he did not make a breakthrough, but things came together.

Dudi Sela won the Keio Challenger in Yokohama the following week, losing only one set.

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

Dudi Sela became the first Israeli since Harel Levy in 2001 to reach an ATP final.

Dudi Sela always knew he had the potential, but suddenly he understood how to fulfill it.

Dudi Sela 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.

Dudi Sela again reached a career-high singles ranking, this time number 46.

Dudi Sela became the first Israeli man in 20 years to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon, and the fourth Israeli man ever to reach the fourth round in a Grand Slam.

Dudi Sela next sought to join Shlomo Glickstein, Mansdorf, and Shahar Pe'er as the only Israelis to have made it to a Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Dudi Sela was defeated in the fourth round by the 2008 Australian Open champion, then-world number 4 Serbian Novak Djokovic.

In late July, Dudi Sela was seeded second for the 2009 Indianapolis Tennis Championships in singles.

In doubles, Dudi Sela partnered American Jesse Levine and defeated Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan and Josselin Ouanna of France to make it to the quarterfinals.

Dudi Sela defeated American Sam Querrey in Hall of Fame Tennis championships.

In 2013, Dudi Sela won challenger events in Tashkent, Astana, and Busan.

In January 2014, Dudi Sela reached the Quarterfinals of the Chennai Open in India beating Lukas Lacko and Mikhail Youzhny before losing to Edouard Roger Vasselin.

Dudi Sela achieved a notable success in 2015 at Challenger level when he won the Odlum Brown Vancouver Open for the fourth time.

Dudi Sela's victory made him just the fifth man in history to win a particular ATP Challenger tournament four or more times, and moved him into sole possession of second place on the all-time list of Challenger title wins, with 24.

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

In 2017, Dudi Sela reached one semifinal and two quarterfinals on the ATP Tour, and won two more Challenger Tour titles.

Dudi Sela won at least one match in the three Grand Slam tournaments in which he played.

At the 2017 Wimbledon Championships, Dudi Sela went on a runt to the third round defeating Marcel Granollers and 23rd seed John Isner along the way.

Dudi Sela's run was end by 13th seed Grigor Dimitrov after he was forced to retire in the third set due to injury.

Dudi Sela quit his quarterfinal match in the third set of the 2017 ATP Shenzhen Open against Alexandr Dolgopolov so he could begin observing Yom Kippur by the time the sun set, forfeiting a possible $34,000 in prize money and 90 rankings points.

Dudi Sela concluded the year with his highest year-end ranking in eight years, at No 67 in the world.

In 2018, Dudi Sela went on a run to the third round of the 2018 Indian Wells Masters as a lucky loser defeating Peter Gojowczyk and 21st seed Kyle Edmund along the way.

Dudi Sela's run was ended by qualifier Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets.

At the 2018 Wimbledon Championships, Dudi Sela played world number 1 Rafael Nadal in the first round and lost in straight sets.

Dudi Sela ended his 2018 season after his quarterfinal loss at the 2018 Hall of Fame Open to recover from wrist and back injuries.

Dudi Sela's year-end ranking was 236 which was the first time in five years and the second time in eleven years that he finished the year outside the top 100.

In 2019, after losing the final of two more challenger events, Dudi Sela won the 2019 Little Rock Challenger.

Dudi Sela 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.

Dudi Sela received a wildcard into the main draw of the 2019 St Petersburg Open but lost in the first round to Ricardas Berankis in straight sets.

Dudi Sela failed to record a win at any level during the year.

In 2021, Dudi Sela played his first match in over a year when he entered the qualifying draw of the 2021 Wimbledon Championships as a protected ranking.

Dudi Sela defeated British wildcard Stuart Parker in the first round before losing in the second round to 5th seed Yasutaka Uchiyama in three sets.

Dudi Sela 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.

Dudi 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 Martinez in straight sets.

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

Gonzalez was at the time the highest-ranked player Dudi Sela had ever beaten in his career, and his 6th upset of a top-100 player in the first 9 months of the year.

Dudi Sela won both his singles contests, defeating Ivan Miranda and Luis Horna.

Dudi 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.

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

Dudi 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 Gonzalez in arguably his most historic victory.

Dudi Sela has three children with his wife Marina, son Elai, daughter Talia and son Roy.