The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : At home in New York

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Wednesday, Sep 05, 2007
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At home in New York

I felt like I was playing in Israel: Shahar Peer
Justin Gimelstob is recording for
The Tonight Show

NEW YORK: When Israel’s Shahar Peer plays at the U.S. Open, she almost feels like she never left home.

“I go on the court and I feel like I’m playing in Israel or something. It’s so much fun,” Peer said on Monday after becoming the first woman from her country to reach the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows.

She beat Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-1. Radwanska knocked off defending champion Maria Sharapova in the third round.

When Peer beat Nicole Vaidisova at night in the third round, there were Israeli flags dotting the stands, and “Hava Nagila” — a song of celebration in Hebrew — blared over the loudspeakers afterward.

What would it mean back home if she became the first Israeli to reach the semifinals at a major?

“It would be huge,” she said. “I just have to not think about those things and just play my game and go out there and give everything I have.”

Justin time

Didn’t take Justin Gimelstob long to find a new gig?

Now that his Grand Slam playing career is over, the 30-year-old American is taping segments for the American television talk program ‘The Tonight Show’.

On Monday, he interviewed No. 3 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, who will face two-time U.S. Open champion Venus Williams in the quarterfinals.

Jankovic giggled through the piece, slated to air later in the week. Gimelstob asked who is on her list of worst players on tour — and Jankovic told him he topped the list.

Then again, she also told Gimelstob he’s on her list of cutest players.

Gimelstob lost to Andy Roddick in the first round of singles last week, then dropped his last U.S. Open match on Monday in mixed doubles.

He has three more tournaments scheduled before he hangs up his rackets for good.

“After those tournaments, I’m going to have to pay to get in here,” he said with a laugh. “Self-deprecation has been a good thing for me the last couple of weeks.”

Agnes Szavay is playing with a bandage about the size of a credit card on her back. It’s helped her reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

The weekend before the U.S. Open, she had to stop playing because of an aching back during the final of a hard-court tuneup tournament.

Her opponent then?

Svetlana Kuznetsova.

And her opponent now?

Kuznetsova, who won the 2004 U.S. Open.

And the back is much better. — AP

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