Fresh start the hope for Shahar
Shahar Peer hopes a successful Wimbledon will kick-start her career. She comes to London having appointed Austrian coach Gunther Bresnik, a former mentor of Boris Becker. The Israeli, currently ranked 47th in the world, got used to the grass in Holland last week, where she reached the second round of the UNICEF Open.
Peer has definitely clinched her place in the Israel Olympic squad with a top 50 ranking and is guaranteed another Wimbledon appearance at the Olympics tennis tournament.
Dudi Sela, ranked 106, has lost all chance of appearing in the Olympics, but he can take comfort from qualifying automatically for Wimbledon.
Last week he failed to retain his challenger title in Nottingham, losing in the quarter- final.
Doubles partners Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich could yet appear at London 2012 should they reach the semi- finals or better at Wimbledon.
Last week the Israeli duo reached the quarter-finals at Queens.
In the qualifying tournament for Wimbledon, Amir Weintraub, ranked 175, crashed out in the first round to France’s Guillame Rufin 168.
Josh Lipman this week joined an elite band of players when he was crowned JC MSFL Player of the Year. The centre half played a key role as Hendon Unit United Sports Club A marched relen relentessly towards an impressive treble. He was in commandin commanding form throughout the seaso season where the Reds conceded jus just 13 goals in the league and he c collected his prize a at the end of season awards ceremony in Edgware.
Lipman is the latest in an illust trious group of pl players to win the Mac Maccabi League’s top individual acc accolade, with recent winners including Daran Bern, Mike Pearson, Lee Cash, Daryl Phillips and Hendon captain Josh Bentley.
He said: “It is a fantastic honour to be recognised by my peers and rival managers, but I couldn’t have done it without my teammates who were all outstanding this year.
“I’m fortunate to play in a great team every week. This award is a reflection of the squad, from back to front.
“I’ve grown more into the centre back role this season and relish playing in a team with players from the same community, who have grown up together.
“We played great football week in, week out, never gave up and had a great team spirit.”
Lipman also paid tribute to teammate Greg Corin and his manager, David Garbacz. “Greg had an outstanding campaign, while David also deserves a huge amount of credit,” he added.
“He made a few good signings which really made a difference. Motti Colman, Ben Lauffer and Danny Kon gave us a real cutting edge and gelled immediately.”
Asked how the team aims to improve on this season’s achievements, Lipman had a warning for Hendon’s rivals.
“The aim is to do it all over again. We’ll start pre-season training soon and hope to carry on where we left off.
“It will be really hard as we know other teams will raise their game and that will be the measure of us.”
Manager Garbacz added: “Josh had a fabulous season at centre back and was the spine of the team. He’s the best defender in the league bar none.”