LITTLE ROCK, June 11, 2019

Dudi Sela from Israel captured his 23rd ATP Challenger title, winning the inaugural Baptist Health Little Rock Open held on hard court at the Rebsamen Tennis Center. The No. 8 seed benefited from the retirement of Duckhee Lee from South Korea, leading 6-1, 4-3 in Sunday’s singles final.

Sela advanced to the title match of the tournament with a total prize money of $81,240 with wins over US-Americans Evan Song, Alexander Ritschard, Ryan Shane as well as Thai-Son Kwiatkowski. He won 55 per cent of the total points when Lee was forced to stop playing citing heat related problems.

Challenger title No. 2⃣3⃣

Dudi Sela is your champion at the inaugural @littlerockopen! The 🇮🇱 drops one set all week to earn his first 🏆 since 2017. pic.twitter.com/WVDYd6yWZx

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) 9. Juni 2019

By lifting his first trophy since 2017, Sela takes away from the United States $9,200 in prize money as well as 90 ATP-Ranking points.

Earlier in the day, Matias Franco Descotte of Argentina and Orlando Luiz of Brazil took the doubles title. The ITF-entries defeated Treat Huey from the Philippines and US-American Max Schnur, who entered the tournament with a wild card, 7-5, 1-6, 12-10. The encounter lasted one hour and 24 minutes.