Israel has reached its first Davis Cup semifinal by taking an unbelievable 3-0 lead over Russia.
Australian Open doubles champions Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich defeated Marat Safin and Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 4-6, 6-4 to decide the best-of-five series.
“This is something I will cherish for all of my life,” said Erlich, who recently came back from a 10-month injury layoff.
A day earlier, Israel had taken a surprising 2-0 lead after Harvel Levy beat Igor Andreev and Dudi Sela rallied to defeat Mikhail Youzhny in the singles matches.
Russia has won the Davis Cup twice—in 2002 and 2007—and made it to the semifinals in each of the past five years.
Israel had reached the quarterfinals once before, losing to India in New Delhi in 1987.
Now Israel will take on either Germany at home or Spain away in September. (Via AP; Images by Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)
Israeli tennis player Andy Ram said Swedish authorities made a “stupid decision” when they barred fans from the Davis Cup series between the two countries.
Well, Ram, take a look at what had happened to the Sri Lankan cricket team yesterday, and you might want to think twice.
Eight people were killed and seven other wounded in the attack when unidentified gunmen firing at the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, the capital city of Punjab.
In the latest updates, New Zealand Cricket has called off their Pakistan tour scheduled in December.
Now back to tennis, I understand how frustrated Ram, his fellow teammates and the Swedish team were to play the first-round series in Malmo in an empty stadium.
Malmo city officials had to make the hardest decision by keeping the fans away as they couldn’t guarantee security at the 4,000-seat Baltic Hall. Anti-Israel protests are already expected in Malmo, and about 1,000 police have been called to keep protesters from the arena.
After Sweden, other countries who will be playing Israel could follow suit.
“I think it was a wrong decision. I think it maybe can open the door for other countries to make a stupid decision like this one,” Ram said.
“I think it’s going to be very bad to play without a crowd.”
Harel Levy, another member of Israel’s four-man team, said it was wrong to mix sports and politics.
“We are here to play tennis,” Levy said.
“We are not here to talk about politics or to talk about terror.”
Dudi Sela and Noam Okun are also on the Israeli team.
Sweden are represented by Robert Lindstedt, Simon Aspelin, Bjorn Rehnquist and Daniel Berta. Veteran Thomas Johansson has been practicing with the Swedish team.
“We’re here since Sunday and we saw him (Johansson) play every day, practicing very hard, so he’s going to play,” Sela predicted.
Johansson, the 2002 Australian Open champion, was disappointed his country won’t get the benefit of a cheering crowd.
“When you play Davis Cup on home turf you want a full house, and we think it’s too bad that there won’t be,” he said.
(Via AP; Images by Drago Prvulovic/AFP/Getty Images via Yahoo! Sports)
Andy Roddick claimed his third ATP title of the season, beating unseeded giant-killer Dudi Sela of Israel 6-4, 6-7 (6) 6-3 today in the final of the China Open.
Roddick struggled all the way against Sela, who reached the final by beating top-seeded seed David Ferrer, fellow Spaniard Tommy Robredo and Rainer Schuettler of Germany.
It was the first ATP final of Sela's career.Sela is only No. 92 in the ATP rankings and is the first Israeli to reach an ATP final since Harel Levy in 2000.
Announced in the official China Open website, Roddick's agent confirmed that the winner has contributed 25 thousand dollars to China Tennis Association (CTA), the first contribution by a foreign player .
In the men's doubles final, Great Britain’s Ross Hutchins and Australian Stephen Huss (pictured) captured their first team ATP title after defeating No. 3 seeds Ashley Fisher and Bobby Reynolds 7-5, 6-4.
“It went fantastically for us, Ross and I played really well,” said the Melbourne resident Huss.
“We’ve played solid all week and haven’t done anything wrong. We really played to the top of our level and that’s been good enough this week to win. It was awesome."
"It’s very satisfying (to win another ATP title), it’s been a long time since I won one at ATP level so that gives me confidence going forward and I hope there’s more round the corner.”
Israel has reached its first Davis Cup semifinal by taking an unbelievable 3-0 lead over Russia. 
Russia has won the Davis Cup twice—in 2002 and 2007—and made it to the semifinals in each of the past five years.
