Tennis: Sela splits with coach, brings in Mansdorf

Tennis Sela splits with

By ALLON SINAI
Dudi Sela announced on Sunday that he will team up with Amos Mansdorf on a regular basis after cutting professional ties with his former full-time coach Yoav Shav. The 24-year-old has come to an arrangement with the Israel Tennis Association to work with a team of coaches in 2010, including Mansdorf, Israel's greatest ever player, former Israel Davis Cup and Fed Cup captain, Oded Jacob, and Andy Zigman. "I had two amazing years with Yoav," Sela said of his break up with his good friend. "I was ranked No. 120 in the world at the beginning of 2009 and will end it at 50-60. Working with Yoav helped me a lot, but I felt it was time for a change. Maybe Yoav and I will work together again in the future." Mansdorf, who worked with Sela intermittently this year, believes he can help his career reach new heights. "Dudi has decided to work with the ITA's team and I hope that together we can take him to the next level," said Mansdorf, who was ranked as high as No. 18 in 1987. Sela has lost eight straight matches, falling to an embarrassing first round defeat to world No. 393 Shao-Xuan Zeng in the first round in Shanghai in his most recent encounter two weeks ago. "I've been chasing ranking points in the last three months and did not allow myself to take a break. I began to lose and played without any desire," said Sela, who hopes to end his season on a high in the Paris Masters in two weeks time. "I hit rock bottom when I lost to Zeng. That is a match I should win even if I'm playing poorly. When I lost, I understood I needed a break." In other tennis news, Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich will play together in an ATP Tour tournament for the first time in more than a year this week. The Israeli doubles specialists, whose last official tournament as a pair was the 2008 US Open, will face No. 1 seeds, Michal Mertinak and Frantisek Cermak, in the first round of the St. Petersburg Open.