Israeli Tennis Players Down - and Out - Down Under
At the Australian Open, Amir Weintraub and Shahar Peer both lost their second-round matches on Thursday.
Israel’s last two representatives in the Australian Open singles tournaments both lost their second-round matches in Melbourne on Thursday.
Amir Weintraub went down in three sets (6-2, 7-6, 6-4) to Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber, while Shahar Peer lost to Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm (6-2, 7-5).
Kohlschreiber, the 17th seed in the tournament who ranks 19th in the world, outplayed Weintraub in every aspect of the game. This marked the Israeli champion's first appearance in a Grand Slam tournament, and fought hard, but made a whopping 40 unforced errors.
Meanwhile, Peer lost to one of the most talked-about contestants in the tournament, 42-year-old Date-Krumm. The Japanese veteran, ranked 100 in the world, controlled the match from the outset, taking the opening set 6-2 in less than half an hour. Peer stepped up her game in the second set, but at 5-5 Date-Krumm broke her serve and took the last game, barely breaking a sweat.
If Date-Krumm wins her next match, against either 17th-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova or Serb Bojana Jovanovski, she will become the oldest player to make the fourth round of a major tournament.
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