BySimon Griver, Simon Griver
Dudi Sela was rewarded for a series of excellent performances with victory at the Batman Challenger Tournament in Turkey.
His run culminated in a 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 victory over top seed Blaz Kavcic (77) in the final.
The win sees Sela climb 19 places to 93 in the ATP rankings and guarantee qualification for the main draw in next month's French Open, and almost certainly at Wimbledon too.
This was Sela's first tournament title since 2013. The 30-year-old Israeli has now won 17 Challenger titles, a number surpassed only by Taiwan's Yen-Hsun Lu.
Sela said: "It feels great to win a tournament. I've been troubled by injury and ill health recently, so I came to Turkey with no expectations and just felt good about every round I got through.
"My aim now is to collect a lot of points in the major tournaments ahead."
Prior to the tournament in Turkey, Sela had only won one match since reaching the third round of the Australian Open in January.
The win over Kavcic also bodes well for Israel's Davis Cup relegation scrap with Slovenia in Tel Aviv in July.
Sela said: "This was the first time I've ever played Kavcic and it was a great preparation for the Davis Cup encounter."