Although 31, Sela, still feels he has good years ahead of him on the circuit. Ranked 96, he started the year with a straights sets win over Bosnia’s Damir Dzumhur (77) in the Chennai Open in India.

Sela said: “I feel really good and my target for 2017 is to re-enter the top 50 and make the effort to stay there for many more years.”

Sela is the only Israeli to qualify automatically for the Australian Open main draw. Amir Weintraub in the men’s tournament, and Julia Glushko (189) and Deniz Khazaniuk (248) will all compete in next week’s qualifiers for the Melbourne grand slam.