Dudi Sela advances into the second round as Andrey Kumantsov retires – Beijing Challenger 2011
Top seeded Israeli Dudi Sela was leading 6-3, 4-1 when the Russian, Andrey Kumantsov, was forced to retire from the Beijing Challenger 2011 on Tuesday. Sela will now advance into the second round of the second edition of this ATP
Challenger Tour event to face a local star, Wu Di.
Ranked 86th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Sela earned a retirement victor against the Russian, ranked 349 places below him, after just fifty-five minutes from the start of the match.
After the Russian held his opening serve confidently in the first game, the 26-year-old Sela blasted powerful groundstrokes to reel off next three games in a row. Although he lost his serve in the sixth game to tie the scores at
3-3, the Israeli converted another breakpoint opportunity to his advantage in the ninth game to bag the opener with a 6-3 win. Although he committed equal number of double faults and produced a lower first serve share of 60 percent as compared to Russian’s
73 percent, Sela registered a spectacular 83 percent win on it.
He carried his winning ways in the final set and convincingly held his serve in the first game. After Kumantsov kept his opening serve in the second game, the Israeli unleashed his true form to reel off next three games in a row
before the Russian got injured and was forced to retire. The Israeli produced a similar first serve share of 69 percent and registered a spectacular 91 percent win on it. He faced zero breakpoint and capitalised on the only breakpoint opportunity to his advantage.
Sela is in tremendous form this season as he already won three ATP Challenger Tour events. He triumphed at Busan, Fergana and Nottingham after taking down seeded players in all three event’s title rounds. The Israeli also made
a semi-final showing at Athens and a last eight appearance at Granby Challengers.
Up next for the Israeli is a local tennis player, Wu Di. Wu slayed his wild card countryman, Chang Yu with a breadstick to reach this spot.
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