1997-08-15: Maccabiah Tennis |
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By Donald H. Harrison San Diego (special) -- There is a reverse California Gold Rush occurring. Instead of digging the coveted metal out of the hills of our state, Jewish athletes are bringing lots of gold back to California -- gold medals, that is, from the recent 15th Maccabiad in Israel. San Diegans Lindy First, Jill Prolman and Marge Kalmanson all came home with gold around their necks--and in some cases some silver medals too - following successful competitions in tennis against other Jewish athletes from throughout the world. First, 14, a sophomore at La Jolla High School, was teamed with Ross Greenstein, 15, of Minneapolis, in the mixed doubles event for players aged 14-17. They played five matches en route to the gold medal, consecutively beating teams from Holland, Mexico, England, South Africa and Israel.
How do two strangers win a gold medal together? "We became really good friends," First replied. "When we were on the court, we decided that while we had to play really hard we also should have a lot of fun. So if one of us hit a bad shot, we just knew we needed to pump each other up." When either scored a point, they would celebrate by slapping their hands together in "a high five." In contrast, she said, partners on some of the opposing teams "got angry at each other" when mistakes were made. And apparently, seeing First and Greenstein get along together so well contributed to their frustration. The American teenagers not only fired good shots across the net, they also aced their opponents with some good psychology. First's performance with Greenstein contrasted with her outing in the women's doubles competition with an incompatible partner, who missed shots and "then I started to miss shots -- we were pathetic!" First said. They were eliminated in the first round.
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Each round you advance, the level of competition gets tougher, so imagine what it was like for Prolman on the next-to-the-last day of competition. In the morning she played in the semi-final match of the women's singles tournament, defeating another American 6-0 and 6-1. At 4:30 p.m. that afternoon, she and fellow San Diegan Debbie Jacobs played in the women's doubles finals, losing a heartbreaker to a rival American team 3-6 and 5 7.
Her partner, Laser, meanwhile, was recovering from a flu, and to conserve energy, decided to forfeit his chance to win a bronze in the men's singles competition. When the worn warriors dragged themselves to the court for the finals match, luckily for them their competitive juices kicked back in. In what must have seemed an anti-climax, they polished off their Israeli opponents 6-2 and 6-3 to take a gold. * * *
"This time, I called her and she said because of my nagging, she would play--and she did. I won $50 on a bet with my husband that I would draw her in the first round." Shakenovsky won the first set 6-4, and was up 3-0 in the second set, when Kalmanson rallied. She went on to win the second set 7-6 and the third set 6-3. The match was played over 2 1/2 hours in 93 degree weather. In subsequent matches, in two of the three competitions, Torva Epstein, Israel's top player among women over 60, proved to be Kalmanson's nemesis. Epstein had won golds in the last three Maccabiads, and paired with Shakenovsky against Kalmanson and Honey Myers of Belle Harbor, N.Y. in the finals of the women's doubles. The combination of top Israeli player and her old school chum proved lethal, with the Americans losing 4-6, 6-4, and 4-6 in a humid and torrid 2 3/4-hour game that was so suspenseful that Kalmonson's husband, Geoffrey, later commented he never wanted to live through another match such as that. Epstein also defeated Kalmanson in the finals of the women's singles competition, 6-0 and 6-4. In the gold medal round of the mixed doubles, Kalmanson paired with Jerry Friedman of Los Angeles to defeat Donald Greenberg of Ithaca, N.Y., and Honey Myers, who had been her partner in the women's doubles competition. |