VANCOUVER, August 24, 2015
Dudi Sela claimed his 18th ATP Challenger title, winning the final of the Odlum Brown VanOpen 6-4, 7-5 against John-Patrick Smith.
The 30-year-old from Israel won 77% of his first service points and capitalized on three of his 13 break point chances to seal victory in one hour and 32 minutes.
“In Israel we practise on a court where the balls are not bouncing high and it’s the same here,” Sela told after being the first player in the tournament’s history, winning the event for a fourth time. “I’m not that tall. This one suits me very well. I have many friends and family here. I feel at home. They are pushing me and I don’t want to let them down. I feel like I’m playing in Israel.”
After lifting the trophy in Batman earlier this season, Sela celebrated his second ATP Challenger title in 2015. “Of course I would prefer it to be ATP World Tour titles, but when I’m not playing my best in ATP I go to the Challengers to get my confidence back. It’s good to go back and practise a lot and I think you’re more relaxed in a Challenger and work on some things in your game. It’s always nice to win a tournament and win a lot of matches. I didn’t do that for a long time and this is a nice feeling. Every match I played better this week, so I feel really good and I want to play well in the US Open.”
Sela takes away US-$ 14,400 in prize money as well as 100 ATP ranking points, which helped him to get back to the top 100. The 30-year-old is the world number 100 on Monday, his career high was on 29th position.
Treat Huey and Frederik Nielsen captured the doubles title, winning the final 7-6, 6-7, 10-6 against Yuki Bhambri and Michael Venus.
