30-year-old YouTuber Karue Sell achieves major career milestone in tennis journey, reaches first ATP Challenger semifinal in Bogota

Karue Sell, who had given up tennis five years ago to pursue a career as a content creator, has ticked off a major career milestone at the age of 30. The Brazilian, who made a comeback to the sport last year, has now reached his first semifinal at the Challenger level in Bogota, Colombia.

Sell left tennis in 2019 and started a YouTube channel to document his skills and help others "win more." Over five years, the channel garnered nearly 140,000 subscribers.

The Brazilian, still active on YouTube, returned to professional tennis in September 2023 at an ITF event in Monastir, Tunisia. He has now reached his first career semifinal at a Challenger-level tournament. Sell achieved the feat at the 2024 DirecTV Open, a 75-point category tournament played in Bogota, Colombia.

Currently ranked World No. 423, Sell began his campaign in Bogota with a 7-6 (2), 6-1 win against compatriot Mateo Barrieros Reyes. The 30-year-old then defeated fourth seed Alvaro Guillen Meza of Ecuador, 6-3, 6-4, and eighth seed Juan Pablo Ficovich of Argentina, 6-4, 6-0, to qualify for the semifinals. The Brazilian celebrated the milestone with a fun post on X.

"First @ATPChallenger semis of my career. Not bad for a 30 year old YouTuber," Karue Sell tweeted.

Sell faced sixth-seed Facundo Mena in the semifinal, giving the Argentine a tough fight over three sets. Mena took the first set, before Sell leveled the scoreline with a second-set tiebreaker. Mena then turned up the heat and grabbed six games on the trot to win the match 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-0.

Karue Sell has won two ITF titles since coming back to tennis

Karue Sell pictured after winning ITF M25 Ithaca (IMAGE via @karuesellhq on Instagram)

Karue Sell first appeared on the professional tennis circuit in 2009. He gave up the sport in 2011 and went on a six-year hiatus before returning to the court in 2017. The same year, Sell picked up his first-ever title at any level of tennis at the USA F30 Futures in Claremont, an M15-level tournament.

In 2018, the Brazilian won two more titles on the Futures circuit. Sell first emerged victorious at the M25 USA F10 Futures in Little Rock and then took home the trophy at the M25 USA F1 Futures in Los Angeles. A year later, he took his second long break from tennis.

Sell marked his next comeback in 2023 and a month later, impressively won the biggest title of his career: M15 Morelia (Mexico), an ITF-level tournament. His latest success on the professional tennis circuit came at M25 Ithaca ITF in January 2024. Sell achieved his highest career ranking of World No. 371 in July 2018.