Sela upset Down Under, still without a win in 2018

Dudi Sela will enter the Australian Open next week without a win to his name in 2018 after suffering a surprise exit in the first round of the Challenger tournament in Canberra on Wednesday.

Sela, ranked No. 78 in the world, suffered a 7-6(6), 6-1 loss to Hugo Grenier, a 21-year-old Frenchman ranked at No. 395.

That defeat came on the back of a 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 loss to Spain’s Fernando Verdasco in the first round of the ATP Tour event in Doha last week.

Sela usually starts his season in India or Australia, but decided that he wanted to begin his 2018 campaign with the new experience of playing a tournament in the Gulf for the first time.

After falling 11 places in the rankings on Monday due to the loss of the points he picked up by reaching the semifinals in Chennai, India last year, Sela is set to drop further in the rankings next week as he will relinquish the points amassed by winning the tournament in Canberra last year.

Sela will be Israel’s lone representative in the men’s singles at the Australian Open, with Edan Leshem (252) being knocked out in the first round of the qualifiers on Wednesday, losing 7-6(4), 6-4 to Gleb Sakharov of France.

Elsewhere, Tomas Berdych won the Tie Break Tens tournament in Melbourne on Wednesday, beating Rafael Nadal.

The Tie Break Tens is a tennis format in which only tiebreak matches are played with the winner being the first player to reach 10 points and lead by a margin of two.

The event saw the return of tennis superstars Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. Former world No. 1 Djokovic hadn’t played since injuring his elbow at last year’s Wimbledon.

The tournament also featured Dominic Thiem, Nick Kyrgios, Lucas Pouille and late addition Milos Raonic who replaced the injured Stan Wawrinka.

Djokovic crashed out in the first round to Lleyton Hewitt, who also ran Nadal close in the semifinals, pushing the Spaniard to a 13-11 finish.

Berdych, who had beaten Nick Kyrgios and Milos Raonic, defeated Nadal in the final with a 10-5 scoreline which saw the Czech collect the $250,000 prize.

Meanwhile, Garbine Muguruza’s preparations for the Australian Open were thrown into disarray when the world No. 3 pulled out of the Sydney International due to a leg injury on Wednesday.

Hours after battling past Kiki Bertens 6-3, 7-6(6) to advance to the quarterfinals in her opening match, the 24-year-old Spanish top seed withdrew with a right thigh complaint.

Reuters contributed to this report.