2011 champion Dudi Sela will have the chance to recapture his crown in Nottingham after his match with second seed Marius Copil was cut short due to the Romanian’s retirement.
Sela, seeded third at this year’s ATP Challenger event, was leading 7-6(4), 1-0 when Copil called time on the match due to a right shoulder injury. The Israeli will now face Thomas Fabbiano in Sunday’s final after he defeated Sam Groth in straight sets earlier in the day 6-4, 6-3.
It was the third seed who made the better start, going up an early break to take a 2-0 lead but Copil responded to move to a 0-40 advantage on the Israeli’s serve in the next game. Sela saved the first with a volley winner but went long with a forehand on the second to relinquish his advantage.
In a closely fought first set play continued to go with serve until the third seed earned two set points in the twelfth game. At this point the Israeli got a sense that his opponent was struggling on serve but did not get down on himself when failing to capitalise on two set points. In the tiebreak Sela took control early on and moved into a 3-0 lead and maintained his advantage to earn three set points. Copil saved the first but could not stop his Israeli opponent from taking the second.
The third seed kept his momentum going at the beginning of the second set and broke Copil’s serve immediately to take full advantage before the second seed unfortunately decided that he could no longer carry on.
