Israel’s top singles tennis player makes his local debut
Thursday, February 11, 2010 | by amanda pazornikIsrael’s Dudi Sela might not be the Omri Casspi of the professional tennis circuit, but his appearance this week in San Jose gave local Jewish tennis fans an opportunity to see him in action.
Sela battled some of the top players in men’s tennis at the 2010 SAP Open, which began Feb. 8 and runs through Sunday, Feb. 14 at HP Pavilion.
“Overall it was a good match,” Sela said by phone after his win. “It gave me confidence going into my next round.”
Sela was stopped in his next round, losing to sixth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber, 6-2, 6-0.
He arrived in the South Bay after a quick trip to Israel on the heels of the Australian Open, where he was ousted in the first round.
Just a few Israeli fans showed up for Sela’s first-round match at the SAP Open, including a good friend who attends San Jose State University. And Sela knows why.
“I played very early that morning,” joked the 24-year-old Tel Aviv resident, who took the court at 9:45 a.m.
Usually when Sela competes outside his native Israel, a contingency of supporters known as the “Hebrew Hammer” follows. They chant in Hebrew and English, wear matching T-shirts and wave Israeli flags, attempting to replicate the raucous atmosphere of hometown matches.
Their outbursts don’t disrupt Sela’s concentration, but rather give him a sense of familiarity when he looks to the stands. For example, at a Davis Cup match against Sweden last March, Israeli fans sang “Dudi Sela, Sela, whatever will be will be” to the tune of the 1950s classic “Que Sera, Sera.”
Fans also have been known to serenade Sela with Hebraic chants comparing him to King David.
“It’s nice to see the support and hear words in Hebrew from the crowd,” said Sela, who heads to the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis next week, leaving little time for Bay Area sightseeing.
Absent from Sela’s matches, however, have been the anti-Israel protesters who’ve made repeat appearances at the matches of Israel’s top female player, Shahar Pe’er.
“I’ve never experienced anything like that,” said Sela, acknowledging he wouldn’t know how to react if protesters sat in the stands for his matches. “It’s not nice to involve politics with sports, and something should be done about it.”
Sela, who calls himself “culturally Jewish,” grew up in Kiryat Shmona, near Israel’s border with Lebanon.
As a competitor on the junior circuit, Sela spent hours studying tapes of his tennis idol, Israeli Amos Mansdorf, who attained the highest singles ranking ever (No. 18) for any male player from Israel. In 2009, Sela became the first Israeli player since Mansdorf to finish a year ranked in the top 50.
Following a successful junior career, which included a semifinal appearance
in the 2003 U.S. Open Junior Championships, and a spot in the quarterfinals of the 2003 French Open Junior Championships and 2002 Australian Open Junior Championships, Sela broke into the professional circuit in 2004.
Known for his swiftness and versatility around the court, Sela attained a career-high ranking of 29 last July.
Though he’s yet to win a major tournament or get past the fourth round of a grand slam, Sela, whose style of play is often likened to a serve-and-volleyer, has captured seven titles on the ATP Challenger Series, a multilevel series of professional men’s tennis tournaments.
“This year, I’d like to win a tour event,” he said. “And crack the top 30 or 40 in the world.”