Israel pushed tennis player to the breaking point

This past weekend Israel hosted a quarterfinal showdown against defending Federation Cup champion Russia. It was a significant achievement for Israel to reach the final eight, for being such a small country. However Russia, with Maria Sharapova, Anna Chakvetadze, Dinara Safina and Elena Vesnina, would be a hard team to defeat.

But Israel's player Shahar Peer, Tszipi Obziler performed admirably. Peer defeated Safina in three sets to stake Israel to a 1-0 lead. But Sharapova defeated Obziler to level it at 1 match apiece. Saturday was two more singles matches and a doubles. The first team to score three match wins wins the tie. Sharapova overcame a boisterous Israeli crowd to dominate Peer 6-1 6-1.

The next singles match is where things got crazy. Anna Chakvetadze, a top 8 player in the world was leading Obziler 6-4, 3-1. The Israeli crowd cheered her first serve misses, screamed out in midpoint as Anna was about to hit the ball, disputed close line calls while the points were being played. The chair umpire and supervising referee penalized the Israeli player two separate points for the disrespectful and uncontrollable behavior of the crowd.

Finally, leading 3-2 but down 0-15 in the second set, Anna had enough of the Israeli's. She won the next point and proceeded to scream COME ON!! at the gallery, while throwing repeated double thrust uppercuts with both hands at them, simulataneously screaming COME ON at them. She then pounded her chest with her fist, and shouted COME ON! once again. Another single fist pump at the Israeli crowd was the exclamation point. Normally Chakvetadze is a calm and composed competitor, not prone to emotional explosions like this. But typically she is not on the receiving end of such blatant unsportsmanship from tennis fans as the unruly and rude Israeli fans subjected her to.

Clearly emotionally fired up, Chakvetadze went on a tear. She won the next point, and again ferociously fist pumped the large outdoor crowd with the same double uppercut fist pumps, screaming COME ONs!, chest beats and the final exclamation point of a raised fist, as if saying, F*** you all! I will defeat her and you all!

Of course the Israeli crowd hated the courageous and bold defiance of the soft-spoken and well mannered Russian teen. They began to boo her and heap more rudeness at her. It only made Chakvetadze stronger. Even Maria Sharapova was astonished and inspired by the sheer intensity displayed by Chakvetadze. Maria, the recent winner of the Australian Open grand slam event, jumped out of her chair to support and cheer on Anna after each point she won, while she was fist pumping the Israeli crowd.

It was the most emotionally intense display I've ever seen in tennis, beyond Rafael nadal, Jimmy Connors, Lleyton Hewitt, Serena Williams or any player from history. Chakvetadze was pushed to the breaking point. She was tired of being ganged up on by the entire Israeli crowd and just exploded at them and her opponent. Once Chakvetadze got control of the match, she just cruised. The fist pumping took her to a higher level. Once she finished the win on match point, there were no fist pumps though or glares to teh crowd. She just put her head down, shook Obziler's hand, did her interview, as if nothing had happened. Russia defeated Israel and will advance to the semifinal against the United States later this year.