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Love Set! Israelis Euphoric Over Davis Cup Win
Israel’s doubles team of Andy Ram, left, and Jonathan Erlich celebrate after Sunday’s upset.Getty Images by Joshua Mitnick It’s a tall order, playing Spain on clay, hence the need for prayer. But for now, Israel, once again the scrappy little country that could, is tennis crazy, having made the Davis Cup semifinals for the first time ever. Once former world No. 1 Marat Safin’s forehand volley 
Despite the karma of playing at the Nokia Arena, which is home to the European champion Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team, and with only one player in the top 100, no one gave Israel’s team much of a chance to beat Russia, which had won the competition twice since 2000. Imagine Gonzaga beating Duke in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. \ So sweeping was the victory that doubles partners Yoni Erlich and Andy Ram said that the Davis Cup quarterfinal win (it was their five-set win that clinched the overall team victory) trumped their Grand Slam title at the 2008 Australian Open. The players and coaches gave kudos to the rabid Israeli crowd. “With all due respect to the Australian, the [Davis Cup] achievement is on a different level,” Erlich told The Jewish Week. “When you play in front of your crowd at home and have 11,000 people cheering for you, and you’re playing for your country — that makes it one of the biggest matches.” Sports commentators quickly declared the victory one of the most important moments in Israeli sports history. Then Eyal Ran, Israel’s Davis Cup captain, contributed some nationalistic rhetorical flourish for good measure: “This is a major league crowd. This is a major league country,” he shouted, echoing Tal Brody’s “We’re on the map!” exultation after Maccabi Tel Aviv won its first European basketball championship. Suddenly, Israel had gained entry to an exclusive club: “the four best tennis teams in the world,” sports commentators declared. “Tennis Empire,” trumpeted the lead headline on the daily Yediot Achronot. But beyond the hubris, the elation over the victory reflected a desire to reclaim some of Israel’s original narrative: a scrappy country that figures out a way to overcome larger powers by making more out of less. Moreover, the Davis Cup team’s ability to convert an individual achievement into a celebration of the collective “team effort” is what Israel aspires to as modern country. \ “The whole is bigger than the sum of its parts,” Ran told The Jewish Week. “When you play for the flag and the state, [the players] reach higher levels than they usually do in their careers.” Like most Cinderella runs, Israel’s national team got an unlikely boost along the way. Because of a tide of international outrage over Israel’s January war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Swedish Davis Cup officials who feared match interruptions from local protestors forced March’s Round of 16 matches in Sweden to be played before an empty arena. That neutralized a home-court advantage that could have very likely tipped Israel’s 3-2 win back the other way. Harris Rosenblatt, a Rockville, Md.-based mortgage banker in Israel to compete in the 18th Maccabiah Games tennis tournament, said he followed the matches from outside the arena along with 300 fans who could hear the crowd roaring before watching the actual points on a large-screen TV. “I just wanted to feel the experience,” said Rosenblatt, a 40-year-old part-time tennis pro. “It’s a different home-court advantage than other tennis matches. The Davis Cup here is different. Israelis are more spirited than other countries. Because when you have 11,000 people who want their team to win, there’s little you can do to keep them quiet.” Even the normally acerbic sports press got swept away. Indeed, the Davis Cup performance struck a stark contrast with Israel’s national soccer team, known for wilting in the spotlight of marquee matches. “There is no way to describe the special excitement ... Team Israel proved that names have no influence, ranking is meaningless when the Davis Cup or Federation Cup is at stake,” wrote Haaretz sportswriter Lior Mor. “It was difficult to ignore the enormous power of Team Israel, which is unified in its unrestrained desire to be called into national service, and represent the country. Erlich admitted, though, that headline writers let their excitement get the best of them. Despite the victory, Israel still is far from being a tennis superpower. Countries like France, Spain and Russia are the true superpowers, he noted. How long it will take for Israel to reach that status, he said, is hard to tell. “You can’t be a superpower when have one player in the top 100, but we’ve gotten to the top four teams this year, and that’s an achievement,” he said. Two days after, the ATP rankings had singles ace Dudi Sela at No. 30, boosted by reaching the round of 16 at Wimbledon. In the post-match celebrations, the drunken team sang (shouted) songs of praise to “our father in heaven” and wailed Mizrachi ballads. A day later, Israelis got a dose of reality when defending champion Spain beat Germany in the quarterfinals and advanced as Israel’s next opponent. And the tough Spanish team will have home-court advantage in September’s semifinal set for Sept. 18-20. (It’s unclear whether the injured Spanish superstar Rafael Nadal, who missed the quarterfinals, will suit up in the semis.) Ran already knows a bit of strategy for the matchup with Spain. “We don’t want to sit on the baseline and rally throughout the match,” he said. “We are going to look to be aggressive and change the pace. We are not going to beat the Spaniards at their own game.” But that sobering challenge hasn’t diluted the momentary giddiness. The Israeli tennis team believes that with a little mix of luck and good preparation there are no limits. “Everything is possible, everything starts at zero-zero,” said Erlich. “Obviously it will be very difficult, especially playing there on clay. We do our best, we give our hearts and more than that we cannot do.”
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