Monday, January 22, 2007

Peer to Peer

Good news from Melbourne for Israeli sports fans - Shahar Peer is in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.

The 19 year old came into the tournament as the 16th seed as has done well, only losing one set of the nine she has played.

Blocking her path to the final four is Serena Williams who will provide stiff opposition for the teenager. If she wins, it will be the greatest of her career by some way.

I've been following her career quite closely since she won the junior girls title at the Australian Open three years ago.

Since then her climb through the ranking has been steady - first entering the top 100, then the top 50 and now the top 20. Against the elite players like Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin-Hardene and Martina Hingis she struggles and is quite lucky that most of them are coming to the end of their careers.

This is why the match against Williams is so important. It's a litmus test to see if she right up there with the best or if there still is a gap between her and the top players.

All of Peer's hard work has set her up nicely. She will be seeded for most of the tournaments she plays in and get through to the pointy end of most tournaments she'll play in without too much difficulty.

Nice to see she has vocal support from all the Israelis in Melbourne. They shouldn't be too prominent though. The Department of Immigration watches the telecast too.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

" Blocking her path to the final four is Serena Williams .... " . Thats an understatement !!

4:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Watched the first 2 sets in the lunch room.
Shahar is an impressive player.
Serena was all over the place in the first set - she seemed to have got her act together in the second.
I don't know the final outcome

8:06 AM  
Blogger Dot Co Dot Il said...

Anon - Think the way Peer played, she would have beaten any other player today.

SA - She lost.

9:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I meant Serena's sheer girth, but whatever ....

4:28 PM  

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