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Top Tennis Stars Excited for Tel Aviv’s Watergen Open
Original Article Published On The JP
Djokovic, Thiem, Schwartzman among the headliners • Returning tournament to start on Rosh Hashanah
Fans of Israel tennis are overjoyed that the Watergen ATP 250 series Tel Aviv Open will return to Israel this September after a 26-year hiatus. The hype is especially high since such top players as Novak Djokovic, Dominic Thiem, Marin Cilic and Jewish-Argentine Diego Schwartzman will be coming to the Holy Land.
Some tennis lovers, however, wish the tournament would have delayed its September 25 start date by two days to avoid conflicting with the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.
The tournament, with $949,475 in prize money, takes place September 25-October 2 at the Expo Tel Aviv complex. The tournament follows Israel’s hosting of the Davis Cup, the premier international team event in men’s tennis, against the Czech Republic in Tel Aviv on September 16 and 17.
Sunday, the 25th, is the eve of Rosh Hashanah, which will continue through sunset on Tuesday, September 27.
Stars recall previous trips to Israel
“It is very exciting to have a prestigious ATP event back in Israel. It is amazing the names of the players that have signed up for the tournament,” reports an excited Yoni Yair, VP of Development for Israel Tennis and Education Centers (ITEC).
Other top players in the 28-person men’s singles draw and the 16-team doubles draw include Botic Van De Zandschulp of the Netherlands, Karen Khachanov (Russia), Tommy Paul (USA), Jenson Brooksby (USA), and Adrian Mannarino (France).
Joao Sousa of Portugal enjoyed being in Israel in 2012 for the Davis Cup but playfully noted, “You beat me – not a very good memory!”
Sousa, like many players, has opportunities to explore Israel given the playing demands.
“I didn’t get to travel around Israel but we stayed in a nice hotel near the beach in Tel Aviv. The country had a nice atmosphere. Hopefully, I will get to explore more!”
Yair recalls the excitement in Israel when past tournaments came to town.
“I remember the buzz and the atmosphere through the years that we hosted the international ATP tournament in Israel. It was such a special time in Israel when first-class players played in the tournament. The stands were always full.”
Yair, whose Israel Tennis and Education Centers provide tennis training and social impact programming to thousands in Israel, is pleased with the impact of such tournaments on the younger generation of Israelis.
“These tournaments were a huge inspiration for our younger players to dream big. I am sure that this event will be a huge success and will drive and introduce the game of tennis to so many young children. The tournament will have a huge impact on tennis in Israel and will create great morale.”
“The tournament will have a huge impact on tennis in Israel and will create great morale”Yoni Yair, VP of Development for Israel Tennis and Education Centers
Argentine grandson of Holocaust survivors makes Holy Land return
Schwartzman has spoken openly about being Jewish and being the grandson of Holocaust survivors.
“My great grandfather on my mom’s side, who lived in Poland, was put on a train to a concentration camp during the Holocaust,” the 16th-ranked Schwartzman recently noted. “The coupling that connected two of the train’s cars somehow broke. Part of the train kept going, and the other stayed behind. That allowed everyone trapped inside, including my great-grandfather, to run for their lives. Luckily, he made it without being caught. Just thinking about it makes me realize how lives can change in a heartbeat.
My great grandfather brought his family by boat to Argentina. When they arrived, they spoke Yiddish and no Spanish. My father’s family was from Russia, and they also went to Argentina by boat. It wasn’t easy for all of them to totally change their lives after the war, but they did.”
Schwartzman is excited to finally get to Israel.
“I really want to be there. It is my first time. I have friends there. Many of my friends went there a few weeks ago for the Maccabiah. I know everything about the country but I want to be there just to see myself – some tennis and some good moments, I hope.”
Schwartzman will not have much of an opportunity to travel around Israel as his next tournament following the Watergen Tel Aviv Open will be in Kazakhstan or Japan.
Israel to welcome world’s former No. 1
While the Israel tournament is delighted to welcome a top-ranked Jewish player to the tournament and to Israel, there is added excitement in welcoming world’s former No. 1, Novak Djokovic.
Djokovic has been considered controversial for a number of his views on vaccination. The 35 year old has refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. As a result, he has missed such tournaments as the Australian Open and the current US Open. He did play at Wimbledon where he went on to win the tournament.
Djokovic is also no stranger to Israel, having visited in 2006 to receive treatment from physiotherapist Rafi Virshuvski. He has visited on other occasions and was quoted as saying: “I played here with Serbia in the Davis Cup, but we didn’t have time to travel. This time I did some traveling in my three days here, you have an incredible country. I got to know it a little bit now and discovered there is plenty more to see. I was in Jerusalem in all the holy places. It was an amazing experience. As a religious man, a Christian, I feel obligated to come here at least one more time to see and experience the fantastic holy land, to pray and see where Jesus was crucified, where he was, where he was buried.”
“We are happy and excited to host one of the greatest tennis players in history, Novak Djokovic, at the Tel Aviv Watergen Open 2022 tournament and look forward to enjoying his impressive playing skills here in Israel,” added Watergen President Michael Mirilashvili.
One lifelong supporter of Israel tennis recently wrote to Mirilashvili to share concerns about the tournament coinciding with Rosh Hashanah.
“It is disappointing and that is putting it mildly, to realize that the first two dates of the tournament will be played on Rosh Hashanah, September 26 and 27. This not only clearly desecrates the spiritual holiness of these sacred days in the Jewish calendar; it also prevents those of us who are Orthodox and who love tennis, from attending on those two days. And there are certainly some who will boycott the entire tournament because of this religious desecration.”
He suggested that the Israel Tennis Association, the ATP and the CEO of Watergen, consider suspending play on Rosh Hashanah and extend the tournament through October 4.
“As a tennis aficionado, I know that with the commitments of the players and officials such a suspension would not be easy.”
The tournament is scheduled to proceed as planned with play starting on September 25.
Kosher kings of Queens Serve up Tennis Treats
Original Article Published On The JP
The friendly, hard-working staff of PKS were deluged with customers on Monday, the first day of the tournament at Flushing Meadows in Queens, NY.
Tennis players can survive a five set match on bananas and Gatorade. Tennis fans, on the other hand, have a hard time spending the entire day at the US Open without proper food. Thanks to PKS (Prime Kosher Sports), tennis fans who observe Jewish dietary laws, and those of any religion who simply enjoy a hot knish, baked pretzel, hot dog, Italian sausage with peppers, a turkey wrap, a BBQ brisket or hot pastrami sandwich can walk over to the kosher cart in the food court.
The friendly, hard-working staff of PKS were deluged with customers on Monday, the first day of the tournament at Flushing Meadows in Queens, NY.
“The line was to the berry place!” reports Shlomo, referring to another specialty food stand 20 feet away, Oak Berry Acai Bowls. “We ran out of many items including water hours ago – and we haven’t been restocked.” Workers reached to the sign above the booth and covered up items temporarily out of stock, including most sandwich items.
“We just got more frozen peppers and onions and are back grilling sausages!”
What is a knish?
A tall blond man looked up at the menu and asked, “What is a knish?”
Shlomo immediately replied, “It is like a giant fat French fry.”
PKS is owned and managed by Michael Arje and David Rishity. The pop-up kosher stand is under kosher supervision of the Kof-K PKS also operates kosher stands at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets baseball team, and the Prudential Center, home of the New Jersey Devils hockey team. They also operate kosher restaurants in the Five Towns of Long Island and in New Jersey.
The owners stress that “it’s all about quality and service” and want everyone “to enjoy tennis and kosher food.”
They add, “Everything is amazing!”
Tennis: Novak Djokovic Commits to Tel Aviv Watergen Open
Original Article Published on The JP
Serbian icon joins Thiem and other top-ranked tennis stars to travel to Israel in September for tournament.
Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic made it official this week that he will travel to Israel to compete in the ATP 250 series Tel Aviv Watergen Open in September.
Djokovic, the former world No. 1 and 21-time Grand Slam winner, will take part in the tournament that will be held at the Tel Aviv Expo complex from September 25 to October 2.
The 35-year-old is widely considered among the best players of all time and holds multiple records, including holding the No. 1 ranking for the longest period (373 weeks) and the most number of seasons in which he finished the year as the world’s top player (seven times).
“We are happy and excited to host one of the greatest tennis players in history, Novak Djokovic, at the Tel Aviv Watergen Open 2022 tournament and look forward to enjoying his impressive playing skills here in Israel,” said Watergen President Michael Mirilashvili.
Former US Open champion Dominic Thiem, from Austria, previously confirmed his intention to participate in Tel Aviv. Jewish-Argentine Diego Schwartzman and Croatian Marin Cilic are also planning on taking part.
The arrival of these stars comes during an already exciting September for tennis in Israel and the Watergen Open will take place two weeks after Israel hosts the Davis Cup tied versus the Czech Republic on September 16-17.
The Tel Aviv tournament returns to Israel after a 26-year hiatus. That original tournament was inaugurated in 1978 and was held yearly until 1981, took a break in 1982 and was again played yearly from 1983 to 1996. The tournament stopped happening due to loss of funding and explosion of tennis tournaments, but was set to resume in 2014 before being canceled due to security concerns surrounding the Gaza-Israel conflict. American player Jimmy Connors won the event in 1989 when he beat Gilad Bloom in the final. The tournament holds the record for having the youngest winner of an ATP event when Aaron Krickstein won the tournament at age 16 in 1983 at the age of 16.
The new tournament is back in Tel Aviv 26 years later thanks to an opening in the calendar caused by the cancellation through COVID-19 of the Zhuhai Championships ATP 250 event in China. Major funding by Watergen and its owner, entrepreneur Mirilashvili, brought the event to Tel Aviv.
Novak Djokovic: No stranger to Israel
Djokovic is no stranger to Israel, having visited in 2006 to receive treatment from physiotherapist Rafi Virshuvski.
He has visited on other occasions and was quoted as saying: “I played here with Serbia in the Davis cup, but we didn’t have time to travel. This time I did some traveling in my three days here, you have an incredible country.
“I got to know it a little bit now and discovered there is plenty more to see. I was in Jerusalem in all the holy places. It was an amazing experience. As a religious man, a Christian, I feel obligated to come here at least one more time to see and experience the fantastic holy land, to pray and see where Jesus was crucified, where he was, where he was buried.”
Thiem is also no stranger to Israel. He played here at age 16 as a junior as well as in more recent years.
“I’ve been to Eilat and Tel Aviv for Futures quite a lot of times,” the Austrian told The Jerusalem Post. “I really enjoy the country, especially Tel Aviv. It’s a very lively and nice city with great, great restaurants, great food, good lifestyle. I’m really happy to be back there soon. Hopefully, it’s going to be a great tournament there.”