Sela notches maiden victory of year in New York
Dudi Sela finally registered his first ATP Tour win of 2018 on Monday, advancing to the second round of the New York Open at Uniondale, New York, with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili.
The 32-year-old Israeli began the year at No. 67 in the world, but dropped all the way to No. 100 earlier Monday after suffering defeats in the opening rounds in Doha, Canberra and at the Australian Open in Melbourne to begin the year.
Sela picked up some much-needed confidence by winning both his singles matches in a Davis Cup tie last weekend for the first time since the World Group firstround encounter against Sweden in 2009, helping Israel defeat South Africa in the opening round of Europe/Africa Group I.
He needed only 59 minutes to beat Basilashvili (61) and next faces 20-year-old American Frances Tiafoe (98), who overcame the winner of the Australian Open junior title, Sebastian Korda, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
The New York Open is a new indoor hard-court event which replaced the Memphis Open in the ATP Tour schedule. The Memphis Open was held in southwest Tennessee annually since 1975.
Ryan Harrison, who beat Basilashvili to win the title last year, began his defense with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over fellow American Donald Young.
Elsewhere, Roger Federer looks to close in on reclaiming the world No. 1 ranking for the first time in more than five years when he gets his challenge underway at the ABN Amro World Tennis event in Rotterdam on Wednesday night against Belgium’s Ruben Bemelmans (116).
The 36-year-old Australian Open champion arrived in the Dutch port city at the weekend knowing a run to the semifinals will move him ahead of Rafael Nadal in the ATP standings.
Should the 20-time Grand Slam champion manage that, he would become No. 1 for the first time since November 2012.
“After the Australian Open was over, I thought I’d love to play Rotterdam and give it a go,” said Federer. “Having the option of getting to No. 1 is highly motivating.”
Federer would surpass American Andre Agassi as the oldest world No. 1 if he reaches the last four in Rotterdam and he would also set another record of the longest gap (five years and 106 days) between stints as No. 1.
He already holds the record of most weeks spent at No. 1, having topped the rankings for a combined 302 weeks. Ameri-can Pete Sampras is second on the list with 286.