Sela suffers semi-final loss in India

Dudi Sela’s preparations for the forthcoming Australian Open saw him enjoy a productive week in India, even if he failed to reach the final of the Chennai Open.

The 31-year-old Israeli was up against Russian Daniil Medvedev in the last-four clash, and started in encouraging form. Breaking serve early in the first set, he then saved two break points to go 5-3 up. And while he couldn’t break again, he held his serve to take the first set 6-4.

Medvedev broke the Israelis serve in the seventh game of the second set to lead 3-1, but Sela broke back straight away. He broke again to go 5-4 up, to see him serving for the match, and reached match point, only for the Russian to battle back. Going to a tiebreak, Medvedev took it emphatically 7-2, and took that momentum into the third and final set.

Broken in his first service game, Medvedev was now in firm control as he broke the Israeli three times so take the set 6-2.

Sela is though the only Israeli to have qualified for the main round of the Australian Open, which begis next Monday. Amir Weintraub, Julia Glushko and Deniz Khazaniuk will need to battle their way through three rounds of qualifiers in Melbourne, which begin this week.