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AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 17, 2007

Dudi Sela

MELBOURNE, VICTORIA

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

Q. You were two points away from winning that match when the rains came. What was going through your mind at that moment?
DUDI SELA: I was very positive. I came to the -- after it stopped raining and they closed the roof, I came to the court. I was very positive. I was hoping that he would miss the first serve, because I saw after in the statistics that every time he was missing the first serve I was winning most of the points.
But he hit a great serve, an ace, and then another service winner, so I had almost nothing to do.
But when I came out to the court after the rain, I don't know why, my body maybe was cold or something. I was running and I had cramps in both of my legs.
I didn't feel it in the tiebreak from adrenaline and everything, but after in the fifth set I was dead.

Q. You had some amazing shots in that match that none of us had really seen too much of from you. Tell us about where you've been training, where you're from, and what your hopes are?
DUDI SELA: I'm from a small city in Israel called Kiryat Shmonna where all the bombs and everything. I moved to Tel Aviv, the center of Israel, when I was 14. And since then I was good in juniors, I was not bad. I was like top five in juniors.
Last year I had back luck. I was 140 already and I broke my elbow and I didn't play for four months. So it was very tough. The last three months I was playing well. I was from 380 because I dropped. I came back to 190.
I'm feeling good with my tennis. I think that I can improve my game and be close to the 100th. I want to finish this year close to the 100th.

Q. Does performing this close to someone like Safin help your confidence?
DUDI SELA: I hope so. Not every time I play Srichaphan the first round and Safin the second round. I hope I will learn from these two matches. I had good experience today playing in the big court that I don't play always. In challengers we play with maybe five people, so it's very nice atmosphere.
I was happy the way I played, just bad luck with the rain.

Q. Was that the first time you had ever played over a full five sets?
DUDI SELA: Yeah, I never go to the fifth set. Always I played a few times the best-of-five, but always finish in three or four sets. So the first time.

Q. And did you feel the pressure and the tiredness in that last set?
DUDI SELA: I was -- like I said, when I came back after the rain I was cramping in my fingers and the feet and the left leg. I didn't care so much I was cramping, but I was running and I knew not every day I have a chance to have seven points to win and to win against Safin, who is No. 1 in the world.

Q. Why is it the Israelis are always able to produce one good players every few years. There's always one or two. Why is that?
DUDI SELA: Are you sure? We haven't had any for a long time.

Q. Harel Levy, Mansdorf is good.
DUDI SELA: Harel Levy, I don't know. I think he's probably aware of the spirit inside of all of what's going on in the country. It's give us something. But also it's sad, but we want to do the best when we are out of Israel when we play tennis because we know we are very fortunate, so that's why.
I think --

Q. It's not because of good facilities or good coaches?
DUDI SELA: No, no, I don't think so. Israel is not the best country to practice. I was practicing a lot in France, you know, with Baghdatis. We are very good friends. So that's why I think I -- I have a little bit of tennis.

Q. You say you broke your elbow. How did you do that?
DUDI SELA: I was doing physical exercise and I was jumping like -- I don't know how you call it, like runners' jumps.

Q. Hurdles?
DUDI SELA: Yeah, and then the thing broke, you know, and I fell down on my elbow. It was like a box like one and a half meters. Bad luck.

Q. When was that?
DUDI SELA: It was straight after French Open last year.

Q. How long did you -- was it before you --
DUDI SELA: Almost four months. I mean, I played the last month but I still had pain, so three months and then four months.

Q. You said you're friends with Baghdatis. Do you work out with him a lot?
DUDI SELA: The last two years not as much, but since we are 14 until 18 we are very good friends. I'm very happy for him where he is. I hope one day I will be the same. Maybe not as good, but --

Q. You did well here in the juniors one year, didn't you?
DUDI SELA: Yeah, semifinal, I think.

Q. So it wasn't a surprise, the conditions weren't a surprise?
DUDI SELA: No, no. I like this. It's the same course that we have in Israel. It's very similar. I know these conditions. The heat, I like it. We have the same in Israel, so it's for my advantage.

Q. You realize that in four sets you were probably the better player on the court?
DUDI SELA: I hope so. No, I played well today. The court is -- the quarters I played much better than today. I was feeling the pressure. It's a big court and it's tough to play. The first time I played -- I played Federer in first round French Open. But in the beginning I didn't feel the ball at all, and then slowly, slowly I got into the match.

Q. Would you happily describe this as the game of your life even though you lost?
DUDI SELA: Yeah, I think it's the best -- yeah, I think it is. I didn't have so many times to play in the big court and play well. The last time I played was Federer, and he killed me.
I thought I should quit tennis, and now I'm happy that I can show that I'm a good player and I can be close to the top hundred.

Q. When the rain came out were you cursing? You had the momentum there and --
DUDI SELA: Before the rain came on I knew in myself I'm going to win the match. I had so much momentum and I was very pumped. Then the rain came on. We could play the first, the first point, but still, it's bad luck. I think the rain came in a bad moment.

End of FastScripts

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