Noah Rubin’s “Behind The Racquet” • With • Dudi Sela | Tennis 10sBalls

 

Editor’s note: 10sBalls thanks Noah Rubin for giving us permission to repost these great stories. We wish him and this endeavor the best of luck. Great seeing Noah wearing K-Swiss and playing Solinco Strings.

 

“It’s truly difficult to become a professional tennis from a small country like Israel. I didn’t have to deal with the army since I was an athlete, but most do. My family was always surrounded by this sport. My brother, who is thirteen years older than me played on tour. My parents were both working in a tennis club, where my father was a coach and my mother was a secretary. I loved every moment playing as a child. In the beginning it was a lot of fun, especially since I was successful from a young age. Each age group I played in, I proved I was the best in Israel. When I started to play ITF events I fortunately continued my success by becoming one of the best juniors in the world. I was one of the first juniors my age to become top 200 in the world. After the jump, I faced some issues. There were financial problems where my parents couldn’t afford the sport and we weren’t receiving help from the Israeli Federation. Combining the lack of money, I had a couple injuries that made it difficult. At this time I was around 20-21 years old and was thinking about following my brother’s path and move to Dallas to be in Real Estate. I was lucky enough to have my coach, Ron Steele, that ended up supporting me mentally and financially. His help had a huge impact as I moved in the rankings from 350 to 110. It meant a lot to have that help because even today each player in Israel is really doing their own thing with little help. The issues taking place in my home country never had a tremendous affect on my life. I didn’t think much about it until I had kids. It’s difficult when I am in a different country and the sirens go off. I have to hope that my family is alright while they are taking shelter. It also has not been easy dropping out the Top 100 due to injury last year. I’ll be honest, the last five to six years I have just played tennis to make as much money as possible, less about the love since the system of tennis is very difficult. I wanted to support my family and tennis is the best option for me right now. I am trying to get back into the Top 100 this year. My goal is to see how close I can get and if I’m not, I‘m going to stop and do something else.” -Dudi Sela – דודי סלע

 

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You can follow Dudi Sela on the links below:

Facebook | Dudi Sela – דודי סלע

Twitter | @Dudi_Sela

 

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Twitter | @BehindTRacquet

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