Tennis: Pe'er, Obziler, Sela, Ram and Erlich all lose

Israeli tennis suffers one of its more disappointing days in recent months.

By ALLON SINAI
peer teeth 224.88 (photo credit: AP)
peer teeth 224.88
(photo credit: AP)
Israeli tennis suffered one of its more disappointing days in recent months on Monday. Shahar Pe'er, Tzipi Obziler, Dudi Sela and Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich were all in action, and all lost their respected matches. In Eastbourne, Pe'er (25 in the world) was knocked out at the first round for a fourth straight event. The 21-year-old Israeli, who has only won twice in her last 10 matches, fell 2-6, 2-6 to Nadia Petrova (22) and will be entering next week's Wimbledon tournament in the worst form of her career. Also at Eastbourne, Obziler (120) lost 4-6, 0-6 to Tsvetana Pironkova in the third round of qualifying. In Nottingham, Sela (64) was defeated 6-3, 4-6, 5-7 by Andreas Seppi (30) in the first round of the tournament. Sela has never been a big fan of the grass courts and his first round exits at Queens and Nottingham in the last couple of weeks will surely not help his Wimbledon hopes. Finally, Ram and Erlich, who won the Nottingham doubles tournament in 2005 and 2006, suffered a surprise 6-2, 4-6, 7-10 defeat to Paul Hanely and Todd Perry in the first round.