page_title: Harel Levy
section_title: 2000–04
hierarchical_section_title: Harel Levy / Tennis career / 2000–04
caption_attribution_description: Self Made Photo Of Harel Levy
context_page_description: Harel Levy is a retired Israeli professional male tennis player, and the current captain of Israel’s Davis Cup team. He reached the final of the 2000 Toronto Masters and achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 30, with his best doubles ranking being World No. 71 in May 2008. Levy was a key factor in Israel's semifinal run in the 2009 Davis Cup.
  In a career interrupted first by Israeli Army service and later by serious right hip surgery in 2001, Levy notably scored victories over Pete Sampras, Andy Roddick, Michael Chang and Wayne Ferreira. As well as reaching the singles final of the 2000 Toronto Masters, he finished runner-up at Nottingham in 2001 and won a doubles title in Newport, Rhode Island.
  In September 2017, Levy was named the captain of Israel’s Davis Cup team.
context_section_description: In January 2000 he and partner Jonathan Erlich won at Orlando, Florida, defeating Óscar Ortiz and Jimy Szymanski 6–3, 6–4 in the final.  In July they won at Newport, Rhode Island, defeating Kyle Spencer and Mitch Sprengelmeyer 7–6, 7–5 in the final of the Hall of Fame tennis championship.
  In July 2000 at the Tennis Masters Series-Canada tournament in Toronto, while ranked only 144th in the world, he used whiplike ground strokes, a tantalizing drop shot, and winners off his one-handed to beat world # 73 Martin Damm, # 47 Stefan Koubek, # 27 Sébastien Grosjean, # 61 Jérôme Golmard, and # 55 Jiří Novák, before losing in the finals to # 9 Marat Safin.  Levy more than doubled his career earnings with the $211,000 runner-up prize.  Levy was the first Israeli to reach an ATP Tour final since Amos Mansdorf in 1994, and jumped to # 70 in the world rankings.
  Levy completed his three years of military service in the IDF in August 2000.
  In March 2001 he upset world # 10 Tim Henman of Great Britain 6–2, 6–4 at Scottsdale.
  In May 2001 Levy upset the world's top player, Pete Sampras, at the Italian Open, 7–5, 2–6, 6–4, saving 13 of 17 break points.  In his next match at the tournament, he beat world # 33 Francisco Clavet 6–4, 7–6, and then whipped Nicolas Kiefer, 6–2, 6–4, winning 80% of his first serves.  Levy played down his achievements by joking that he was more depressed by his Israeli soccer team (Maccabi Haifa) losing that week than excited by his success. "I still like soccer much more than tennis", he shrugged.  In the quarterfinals he subsequently lost to Sweden's Andreas Vinciguerra.
  In June 2001 Levy upset world # 17 Wayne Ferreira of South Africa 6–2, 6–4.  He then beat world # 40 Andy Roddick 7–6, 5–7, 6–3 with powerful groundstrokes and spinning drop shots, while sustaining a right hip injury.  At one point, Roddick prostrated himself on the court, worshiping with outstretched arms in Levy's direction after Levy had gone up 40–0 on Roddick's serve on three cross-court passes. "He'd produced three running passing shots in a row", Roddick explained. "My approach play hadn't been bad.  He just came up with power and speed and there was nothing I could do about it at all."  Levy lost in the finals of the Nottingham Tournament in England to Thomas Johansson of Sweden, 7–5, 6–3, despite his use of what had become by then his trademark drop volleys.  In late June he retired from his first round Wimbledon match with a hip injury. On June 25, at the age of 22, he reached the ranking of # 30 in the world.
  In November 2001 Levy flew to the US for arthroscopic surgery for an injured knee, and also had complicated right hip surgery to address his injury in Nottingham.  He spent six months home in Ramat Ha-Sharon, a suburb of Tel Aviv, recuperating, and in April 2002 returned to playing tennis.
  Levy was hampered by injuries for much of the 2002 season.  By July 2002, his ranking had dropped to 326.  The following month he said:  "I'm not going to be back to a hundred percent, but if I get back to 90%, I'll be very happy."
  At the US Open in 2002 he defeated world # 30 Andrei Pavel 1–6, 7–6, 4–6, 6–3, 6–4.  A partisan crowd cheered him on.  Asked how much the crowd helped him, Levy shrugged: "In percentages, you want? OK, around 23½."
  At the Forest Hills Tennis Classic in May 2003, Levy defeated top-seeded world # 96 Justin Gimelstob 6–2, 6–3.
  At the qualifying tournament for Wimbledon in 2003, Levy defeated Paul Goldstein in the first round, and reached the 3rd round before losing.  In September 2003, Levy and partner Paul Baccanello of Australia won the doubles title at the Open de l'Isère, defeating Rik de Voest and Johan Landsberg 5–7, 6–4, 7–6 in Grenoble, France.  Levy also reached the singles final at the tournament.  Later that month he paired with Amir Hadad to defeat Fred Hemmes, Jr and Raemon Sluiter 6–4, 6–4 to win in Groningen, the Netherlands.  In October he and Hadad defeated Scott Humphries and Mark Merklein 6–4, 6–7, 6–3 to win in Nottingham, England.  Levy was back in peak form at the Dnepropetrovsk tournament in Novem
caption: Harel Levy at the 2004 U.S. Open
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