Sela granted wild-card entry to Wimbledon

Dudi Sela will play in world-famous competition after winning 15 straight matches on the Challenger circuit.

By ALLON SINAI
Dudi Sela 311 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS)
Dudi Sela 311 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS)
After winning 15 straight matches on the Challenger circuit, Dudi Sela was rewarded on Sunday with a wild-card for the main draw of Wimbledon.
The 26-year-old chose to end his run of playing in 14 straight Grand Slam tournaments by forgoing his place at Roland Garros last month in order to pick up some much-needed ranking points and confidence in Challenger events.
Sela plummeted to No. 147 in the world a month ago, his lowest position in almost four years, but the Israeli is expected to climb to No. 81 on Monday thanks to his three straight Challenger triumphs at Busan, South Korea, Fergana, Uzbekistan and Nottingham, England on Saturday.
“I was told by Wimbledon at the start of last week that I have a chance to get a wild-card,” said Sela, who was preparing to play in the qualifiers at the All England Club as a result of his drop in the rankings last month.
“Every year around three foreign players receive wild-cards and because I did well in recent Challenger competitions and because I’ve done well at Wimbledon before they gave me one this year.”
In other tennis news, Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber won the Halle grasscourt tournament on Sunday for his third singles title of his career after countryman Philipp Petzschner retired with a back injury.
In the first all-German Halle final since the Wimbledon warm-up event started 19 years ago, the pair slugged it out in an exciting first set before the 27-year-old Petzschner retired, trailing 7-6, 2-0.
Meanwhile, women’s world No. 1 and local favorite Caroline Wozniacki thrilled a rowdy crowd to win the Danish Open on Sunday for the second consecutive year, easily beating fourth seed Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4.
Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were supposed to face each other Sunday in the final of the Queen’s Club grasscourt championships, however rainy conditions for most of the day forced the match to be postponed until Monday.
Reuters contributed to this report.