{"id":10399,"date":"2017-01-13T17:37:22","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T06:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/?p=10399"},"modified":"2017-01-16T10:21:38","modified_gmt":"2017-01-15T23:21:38","slug":"struff-sela-play-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/news\/2017\/01\/13\/struff-sela-play-off","title":{"rendered":"Struff – Sela Play Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top seed and world No.64 Jan-Lennard Struff <\/strong>(GER) and world No.86 [8] Dudi Sela<\/strong> will play off for the East Hotel Canberra Challenger 2017 <\/strong>title at 11am tomorrow, Saturday 14 January<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Both players are in top form and have taken the competition by storm.<\/p>\n

\u201cStruff is a very good player,\u201d Sela said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a tough match tomorrow but I\u2019m going to give my best and try to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomorrow will be Sela\u2019s 28th<\/sup> ATP Challenger Tour singles final round appearance.<\/p>\n

Former world No.29, Sela holds 20 Challenger Tour titles and is Israel\u2019s No.1 tennis player. A legend in the Jewish community, Sela has a mammoth following and is thought of as a \u2018king\u2019 in Israel.<\/p>\n

A participant in all four Grand Slams for the past three years, Sela will compete at the Australian Open<\/strong> next week where he will face world No.37 Marcel Granollers<\/strong> (ESP) in the first round.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old is a stalwart in Israel\u2019s Davis Cup team, having played in 47 ties over his career. Tomorrow will be Sela\u2019s 27th Challenger Tour final match appearance.<\/p>\n

Sela\u2019s road to the Canberra final included taking out Canberra crowd favourite Sam Groth <\/strong>(VIC) in the quarterfinal and then unseeded Alejandro Falla <\/strong>(COL) in a three set semifinal showdown 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough match today,\u201d Sela said. \u201c[It was] very windy and he is a tricky player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomorrow won\u2019t be the first time Sela and Struff have come head-to-head, having come face to face at the 2016 and 2015 Australian Open<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played him twice and I won twice,\u201d Sela said. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t mean anything. He\u2019s improved a lot and it\u2019s going to be a tough match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the East Hotel Canberra Challenger 2017<\/strong> Doubles Champion, Struff hasn\u2019t let the hot conditions stop him from tearing his way through the tournament.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old confidently eliminated four opponents to make the final round in Canberra, including an ace at deuce on match point and 14 aces in total during the semifinal against sixth seed and world No.86 Steve Darcis <\/strong>(BEL).<\/p>\n

In 2016, the five-time singles Challenger Tour title holder has won Challenger Tour titles in the Netherlands and Belgium and was a finalist twice\u00a0in Germany. The world No.63 played at Roland Garros<\/strong>, Wimbledon<\/strong>, and the US Open<\/strong> last year and will be heading to the Australian Open next week with a tough round 1 draw against eighth seed Dominic Thiem<\/strong> (AUT).<\/p>\n

The East Hotel Canberra Challenger 2017<\/strong> singles final will be Struff\u2019s 17th Challenger Tour final round appearance.<\/p>\n

Coming off the back of his doubles final win today<\/a> with partner and fellow German Andre Begemann<\/strong>, Struff is sure to play a quality match against Sela tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The East Hotel Canberra Challenger 2017<\/strong> entry has been free all week, with a gold coin donation request on finals day. A free water station is provided and shaded tiered seating available for spectators.<\/p>\n

Watch the Canberra Pro Tour Live Stream<\/a> and keep up to date with live scores using the Pro Tennis Live App<\/a>.<\/p>\n

#eastCBRCH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top seed and world No.64 Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) and world No.86 [8] Dudi Sela will play off for the East Hotel Canberra Challenger 2017 title at 11am tomorrow, Saturday 14 January. Both players are in top form and have taken the competition by storm. \u201cStruff is a very good player,\u201d Sela said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5993,"featured_media":10402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5993"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}