Little Country That Could
For such a small country, Israel has had a very active junior tennis program for decades. Over the years, there have been a few successful Israeli players on the ATP and WTA tours, e.g. Amos Mansdorf, Shlomo Glickstein, Anna Smashnova. Glickstein won 2 titles and reached a career high of 22, Mansdorf won 6 titles and cracked the top 20 at number 18 and Smashnova, who has been ranked as high as number 15 in the world, has won 12 titles.
Now a new wave of talented Israeli players is starting to make an impression on both the ATP and Sony Ericsson WTA Tours. On the men’s side, talented and diminutive Dudi Sela almost knocked off Marat Safin at the Australian Open while doubles specialists, Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich, are competing at the top echelons of men’s doubles, barely losing to the Bryan brothers in a recent final. On the women’s side, nineteen year old Shahar Peer, who has already collected 3 titles, was a couple points from beating eventual Champion, Serena Williams, at the 2007 Australian Open. Peer is currently ranked a career high of 15th. Let’s hope that this new wave of talented tennis players continues…
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