Dudi Sela

David "Dudi" Sela (Hebrew: דודי סלע; born April 4, 1985) is an Israeli professional tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 29 in July 2009. As of August 2015, Sela is Israel's top men's singles player.

Representing Israel in the Davis Cup, highlights include an upset win in 2007 over World No. 7 Fernando González and being a key factor in Israel's semifinal run in 2009. In 2008 he beat World No. 5 David Ferrer in straight sets, and in 2010, he beat World No. 7 Andy Roddick in straight sets. Sela reached the fourth round of the 2009 Wimbledon Championships and has finished runner-up in two ATP tournaments in Beijing and Atlanta.

Early life

Sela's father Michael, a bus driver, and mother Anca, a nurse, immigrated to Israel from Romania. His family name was originally Sălăjean, but his father changed it so that it would be more easily pronounced in Israel. He grew up in Kiryat Shmona, near the Israel-Lebanon border.

At the age of two, Dudi, diminutive of David, had his hands on his first racket, and at the age of seven he began to play tennis. His tennis idols were his brother Ofer, who was a top 200 player, and the Israeli Amos Mansdorf.

Rajeev Ram

Rajeev Ram (born March 18, 1984 in Englewood, Colorado) is an American professional tennis player on the ATP Tour who is known best as a doubles specialist. He has advanced as far as the semifinals in doubles at the US Open and the quarterfinals at the other three slams. Ram has also won two ATP singles titles at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in 2009 and again in 2015.

Ram has claimed eight ATP doubles titles in his career, with several different partners. His career-high singles ranking is world no. 78, achieved in November 2009. He reached as high as world no. 30 in doubles in July 2015.

Personal

Ram was born to Raghav and Sushma Ram. His parents hail from Bangalore, India. Table tennis, cricket, and music are some of his interests.

Career

Early career

In his junior career, Ram won a total of nine national junior titles, including singles and doubles. Amongst his titles were the National Claycourt 14-and-under singles title, the boys 16 and under national championship, the 18 and under Easter Bowl title, Kalamazoo doubles and the Target Cup tournaments. In addition to his nine junior titles, Ram played high school tennis at Carmel High School, earned All-State honors, became the state singles champion, and earned a scholarship in both 1998 and 1999.

Roger Federer

Roger Federer (German: [ˈfeːdərər] born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). His accomplishments in professional tennis cause him to be popularly regarded as the greatest tennis player of all time. Federer turned professional in 1998 and has been continuously ranked in the top 10 since October 2002.

Federer holds several records of the Open Era: holding the world No. 1 position for 302 weeks (including 237 consecutive weeks); winning 17 Grand Slam singles titles; reaching each Grand Slam final at least five times (an all-time record); and reaching the Wimbledon final ten times. He is among the seven men (and among the four in Open Era) to capture a career Grand Slam. Federer shares an Open Era record for most titles at Wimbledon with Pete Sampras (7) and at the US Open with Jimmy Connors and Sampras (5).

Federer has reached 27 men's singles Grand Slam finals, including 10 in a row from the 2005 Wimbledon Championships to the 2007 US Open, both statistics being records. He also appeared in 18 of 19 finals from the 2005 Wimbledon through to the 2010 Australian Open. He reached the semifinals at 23 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments, from the 2004 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open. At the 2016 Australian Open, he played in a record 65th consecutive Grand Slam tournament, reached a record 47th Grand Slam quarterfinal and a record 39th Grand Slam semifinal. Earlier at the 2015 US Open, he reached a record 27th Grand Slam final. Also earlier at the 2013 French Open, Federer reached a record 36th consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal. Federer has won the most matches in Grand Slams (302) and is the first to record 65+ wins at each Grand Slam tournament.