Sela future in the balance

TENNIS ISRAEL’S top male tennis star over the past decade could be set to retire. Dudi Sela, 33, has been sidelined with a chronic hand injury since July and will miss the opening weeks of the 2019 season. During this time, he has slipped to 236 in the world rankings.

Sela said: “I will certainly be playing this season, but if I cannot make it back into the top 100, then this will be my last season.”

Sela reached a career high of 29 in 2009, when he made the fourth round at Wimbledon and helped Israel to the semi-finals of the Davis Cup. He has won nearly $4million in prize money, including 22 Challenger titles, more than any other world player. Only two other Israelis, Amos Mansdorf and Shlomo Glickstein, have reached a higher ranking in men’s tennis.

Israel’s top-ranked women’s player, Julia Glushko (124), will also miss the first month of the new season after having surgery on an injured knee.