A 19 Year Old Athlete Lifts Her Nation’s Spirits
dd January 23rd, 2007
When Shahar Peer, a young 19 year old Israeli, played none other than two time champion Serena Williams in her first Grand Slam quarterfinals last night, how many American do you think were watching? Given hardly any Americans watch tennis on TV anyway, I’d say not many. But, oh what a different story in the tiny country of Israel!
As AP reported, “The win over Kuznetsova (her previous opponent) catapulted her onto the front pages of Monday’s newspapers, overshadowing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the incoming army chief of staff. Olmert opened his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday by applauding Peer’s performance.”
This is equivalent to Bush opening a cabinet meeting by applauding Andy Roddick. Not likely. Not only was the PM interested, but Israeli TV carried the match live at 4AM, with a large audience tuned in.
Although the young Peer lost in the 3rd set, 8-6, it was an extremely close match and she had a chance to win it by holding serve at 6-5. She fought valiantly against her heavily favored and experienced opponent. It was definitely a David vs Goliath contest, not unlike those her own country has had to fight many times over the last 60 years. The whole often beleagured country of Israel was uplifted by her gutsy performance.
While other 19 year old tennis prodigies are training year round in elite Florida academies — Americans, Russians and Czechs — Shahar must still serve in the Israeli Army like all her 19 year old compatriots. Perhaps, that experience helped her to play with such poise in the most pressure filled tennis match of her young career. Tov M’od, Mitzuyan and Mazel Tov, Shahar!
What an uplifting story. Although I wish she had won, the fact that she got there is so significant. It somewhat reminds me of the championship basketball game we took in while we were in the Ben Gurion airport, where the Tel Aviv team beat out Italy to everyone’s surprise.