Israel reached the Davis Cup World Group for the second time in their history yesterday following an improbable and courageous victory over Chile in a tie which will be remembered as a classic encounter of grit and determination.

Both teams fought tooth and nail in the steamy conditions in Tel Aviv on an outside hard court, to gain the coveted place among the world's top 16 men's tennis nations, with Israel prevailing 3-1 after a stunning series of five-hour marathons.

It was gruelling to watch and certainly the players were drained at the end of each encounter as Israeli No.1 Dudi Sela, ranked 105 in the world, first beat Chile's No.2 Nicolas Massu (ranked 77) 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 in a match lasting five hours and seven minutes.

'The diminutive Sela delivered the final blow with a stunning performance as he overcame the class of Gonzalez'


Chile's Fernando Gonzalez (6) then levelled the tie at 1-1 by beating Noam Okun (186) 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 in a three-and-a-half-hour encounter. But Israel, backed by a boisterous crowd who sometimes got a little out of hand, were not planning to let that setback derail their plans. In the doubles, Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich, the world's No.6 ranked pairing, needed five sets in the searing heat before they overcame Gonzalez and Massu, the Olympic gold medalists, 2-6, 7-6, 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 in another five-hour epic which could have gone either way.

Yesterday, the diminutive Sela delivered the final blow with a stunning performance as he overcame the class of Gonzalez to win 4-6, 7-6, 5-7, 7-6, 6-3 in another five-hour stunner which had all the highs and lows of a rollercoaster ride.

Ties of such epic proportions come along very rarely and those who were lucky to witness it saw the players from both teams go all-out to do battle for their country. Israel's achievement is one of the state's sporting highlights in the 60 years since its establishment and probably the best ever achieved on home soil.
Although probably the first time Israel made it to the World Group, in 1986, was of even higher quality – that team, led by Shlomo Glickstein, beat Switzerland in the sleepy town of St Gallen (luckily, Roger Federer was only a toddler then, and his predecessors were mere mortals.)

Israel then had a line-up with four star campaigners: Glickstein, Amos Mansdorf, Shahar Perkiss and Gilad Bloom, all of whom at the time were more highly ranked than the current crop. Like today's team, the one that played in the World Group between 1987 and 1994 had great spirit, but these latest Israeli heroes have an added belief in their ability to get results against the odds.

Sela's victory over Gonzalez – by the end of which he was almost toying with his highly-rated opponent – was not dissimilar to what Glickstein used to dish out to all those Davis Cup opponents who dared tread on his court at the Israel Tennis Centre complex near Tel Aviv.

Now, after a long period of lurking in the shadows, interest in Israeli men's tennis – at least at home – has been thrown back into the spotlight, and there is hope that the draw to be made in London on September 27 will deliver another victim for the Israeli players and the crowd to get their teeth into.

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