Makedonas

I was not surprised by this, Ostapenko is an aggressive player and if she has a good day not much can be done. Gauff is a good fighter but she has limitations in her game. However she is very young and seems to be hardworking so I'm sure she will improve and get to the next level but it might take time! Also, who knew that Magda Linette would be the last Pole standing in Melbourne?

Yes, it was a crazy, rollercoaster match! So many emotions, I was so stressed and nervous, but in the end Stefanos stepped up when it mattered. I am so proud of him and proud as a Greek to have an athlete like him. He is truly remarkable and a fighter. I hope he can continue to advance in this tournament. He deserves it! @Gianlu33I see from your reaction you must be disappointed and it is understandable, but Jannik played a great match and you should also be very proud of him! His time will come if he plays more matches like this. It is a pity that both players could not be winners today, this was too good of a match to be played in the round of 16, it was worthy of a semifinal especially seeing the way the draw has collapsed here!

She tried for 4.38 today but unfortunately was not successful. It was also revealed that she will be leaving to go study in the United States and compete there. It might not be the best decision because most of our athletes who did so in the past stopped improving. Even Stefanidi who had a world junior record stopped improving, and only AFTER she completed her studies did she start getting new PBs again... However we had a big U18NR today in the men's shot put by Dimitrios Antonatos (20.62m with 5kg, Mouzenidis had the previous record with 19.96m), and also Nikoleta Michailidou equaled our U18NR in the women's high jump with 1.83m.

Fruhvirtova also took a very long medical timeout down 2-3 in the third set. She did not look injured to me. If another player did that then they would be heavily criticized... Let's not forget the fake narratives being spread about Tsitsipas at the 2021 US Open, first by 'Sir' Andy Murray and then by others in the match against Alcaraz, where Tsitsipas took a toilet break after WINNING the 4th set 6-0 and was booed by the New York crowd for it, which makes no sense because he clearly had the momentum as he bageled Alcaraz in that set...

Last night Tsitsipas brothers lost 6-7(6) 6-4 6-7(7) in the second round of doubles to the number 1 seeded team. It was a great performance and too bad that they couldn't win, but Petros is definitely improving in doubles and soon will be top 100. I think it is quite realistic at this point to expect Greece to have possibly 3 quotas in tennis for Paris 2024 as long as Petros stays healthy, I guess he will have to be top 75 or so by then, I think we will qualify the brothers to play men's doubles They also did not get broken the entire match. It also looks good for our upcoming Davis Cup tie against Ecuador, which will not be easy as they have a good doubles pairing as well but we will be at home at the Olympic Indoor Hall in front of 10,000 fans or so, which will easily break the attendance record for a tennis match in Greece (Olympic tennis stadium only seats 8,000).

I watched the end of this match, it seemed Vondrousova was injured and struggling to move. I was shocked by the handshake, very cold and unfriendly. I thought they were going to be friendly as they are from the same country.

It's quite funny because she used to peak for the GS tournaments. In 2017 she was barely top 100 for most of the year (even dropped out briefly) yet made R3 of Aus Open, Wimbledon, and US Open. After the US Open she was only ranked 82 despite having three GS third rounds on her ranking. Now she is a top 10 player and her last four GS results have been R2/R3/R2/R3... She used to always beat these types of players until about 8 months ago, now she has a lot of losses against players she would never lose to before, for example Trevisan and now Zhu. I don't know if it is coaching that needs to be changed, I mean Tom Hill brought her from being a top 50 player to top 3. Last year her results started to not be good anymore so I was thinking maybe it's time for a change, but then she made the final of Guadalajara out of nowhere and qualified for semifinals of WTA Finals. She has a lot of points to defend between now and Indian Wells (St Petersburg F, Doha SF, Indian Wells F) but after that not much until October, so hopefully she'll play with less pressure when her ranking drops a little bit because as we saw in the match against Zhu she was too passive and allowed Zhu to dictate play and it seemed that Maria was afraid to go for her shots and kept hitting in the middle of the court I am proud though that Maria at least tried her best and fought until the end as she always does, in an era when there are many lazy/unmotivated players on WTA who always give up and don't care.

You did quite well in the end!

Thank you for this! Unfortunately Karachaliou will be representing Portugal and not Greece.

2023 Australian Open: Men's Singles: Round 1: (3) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. Quentin Halys FRA 6-3 6-4 7-6(6) Round 2: (3) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. (WC) Rinky Hijikata AUS 6-3 6-0 6-2 Round 3: (3) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. Tallon Griekspoor NED 6-2 7-6(5) 6-3 Round 4: (3) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE vs. (15) Jannik Sinner ITA Women's Singles: Round 1: (6) Maria Sakkari GRE d. Yue Yuan CHN 6-1 6-4 Round 2: (6) Maria Sakkari GRE d. (Q) Diana Shnaider RUS 3-6 7-5 6-3 Round 3: Lin Zhu CHN d. (6) Maria Sakkari GRE 7-6(3) 1-6 6-4 Men's Doubles: Round 1: Tsitsipas/Tsitsipas GRE/GRE d. Ramanathan/Reyes-Varela IND/MEX 3-6 7-5 6-3 Round 2: (1) Koolhof/Skupski NED/GBR d. Tsitsipas/Tsitsipas GRE/GRE 7-6(6) 4-6 7-6(7)

I'm curious, who did you have for Greece in sailing, athletics, and swimming? Thank you in advance.

Unfortunately, players must be entered in either singles or doubles in order to play mixed doubles. So that woman would have to be qualified in another event in order to also play mixed doubles. However, I could see the Netherlands having more men as they can have another doubles team and make two teams from Botic, Middelkoop, Haase, Koolhof, Rojer...

Νίκησε με 15-10 και πέρασε στον τελικό!

We actually had 83 in Tokyo so it should be -2 for us, not +6. I don't see how Petrounias doesn't qualify (he didn't compete at the World Championships so I guess that's why he was excluded here) and 11 in athletics and 7 in swimming are very low numbers, but it's nice to see us return in boxing, diving, and equestrian after some years without quotas in those sports. Great work! Very much appreciated! I'd also be curious to see the gender breakdown.

Tentoglou started the season yesterday with 8.33 in Athens. This is his best start ever and makes us wonder if he will smash the 8.55 he did indoors last year. Also our 17 yo Iliana Triantafyllou (pole vault), who won gold last year at the European U18 Championships, cleared 4.30 today in Thessaloniki. Her previous PB was 4.15 outdoors and 3.35 indoors. Stefanidi's U20NR of 4.37 is in danger and will most likely be broken by Triantafyllou over the next two years.

2023 Australian Open: Women's Singles Qualifying: Round 2: Olga Danilovic SRB d. Despina Papamichail GRE 6-3 6-1 Men's Singles: Round 1: (3) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE vs. Quentin Halys FRA Women's Singles: Round 1: (6) Maria Sakkari GRE vs. Yue Yuan CHN

It's a complicated and controversial situation and even a few days ago when people brought up his death, there were a lot of differing reactions from people. You have to go back about 100 years ago when Greeks were really divided on supporting the monarchy or the democracy.

Seems like only Greeks are dying lately...

2023 Australian Open: Women's Singles Qualifying: Round 1: Despina Papamichail GRE d. (10) Reka Luca Jani HUN 6-1 6-0 Round 1: (18) Marina Bassols Ribera ESP d. Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE 6-2 6-1 Round 2: Despina Papamichail GRE vs. Olga Danilovic SRB

South Korea's Moon Dae-Sung, who beat Nikolaidis in the final at the 2004 Olympics, traveled to Thessaloniki, Greece to visit Nikolaidis' grave. He told reporters that he had a very strong relationship with Nikolaidis, and that he was sorry that it took him so long to visit his grave. I think this is a really beautiful story and it shows the Olympic spirit. Video here (in English) https://www.gazzetta.gr/tae-kbon-nto/2186421/alexandros-nikolaidis-ston-tafo-toy-o-koreatis-poy-antimetopise-ston-teliko

Η Δαλακα και στο φετινό Survivor. Μάλλον δε θα την ξαναδούμε ως αθλήτρια στίβου...

2023 United Cup - Semifinals: Greece 1 - 4 Italy Martina Trevisan ITA d. Maria Sakkari GRE 6-3 6-7(4) 7-5 Lorenzo Musetti ITA d. Stefanos Sakellaridis GRE 6-1 6-1 Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. Matteo Berrettini ITA 4-6 7-6(2) 6-4 Lucia Bronzetti ITA d. Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE 6-2 6-3 Rosatello/Vavassori ITA d. Grammatikopoulou/P.Tsitsipas GRE 6-3 4-6 10-5

Now we have the nominees for the "Gazzetta Awards" which the most popular Greek sports site conducts every year and the fans get to vote to choose: Men: Giannis Antetokounmpo (basketball) Anastasios Bakasetas (football) Apostolos Christou (swimming) Georgios Kougioumtsidis (wrestling) Antonios Papakonstantinou (rowing) Eleftherios Petrounias (gymnastics) Miltiadis Tentoglou (athletics - long jump) Kostas Tsimikas (football) Stefanos Tsitsipas (tennis) Aleksandar Vezenkov (basketball) Odysseas Vlachodimos (football) Angelos Vlachopoulos (water polo) These nominations are pretty good. I'm surprised Vezenkov was included because he plays for the Bulgarian national team, though he competes for a Greek club team and has Greek citizenship as well so I guess that is why? Although the Alexandri sisters for example would never be considered as Greeks for these types of awards... I thought Ntouskos or Gkolomeev could've been included with their European medals instead of Vezenkov but overall this is a good list. If it were up to me, I would include Ntouskos and exclude Gkolomeev. Women: Evangelia Anastasiadou (rowing) Antigoni Drisbioti (athletics - race walking) Zoi Fitsiou (rowing) Despina Georgiadou (fencing) Theodora Gkountoura (fencing) Anna Korakaki (shooting) Anna Ntountounaki (swimming) Maria Prevolaraki (wrestling) Maria Sakkari (tennis) Theopoula Sarvanaki (taekwondo) Ekaterini Stefanidi (athletics - pole vault) Elina Tzengko (athletics - javelin throw) I disagree with some of these. Gkountoura and Ntountounaki have no business being nominated. Gkountoura had an okay year but Georgiadou did better, Gkountoura failed to reach the podium at the World and European Championships. Ntountounaki did not win medals at the European Championships and did not even make a final at the Worlds. By this logic, judoka Elisavet Teltsidou might as well have been nominated, she at least won a Grand Slam despite no World/European medals this year. Also think Fitsiou is a bit questionable, she won a European silver in a non-Olympic event. Evangelia Platanioti for example won two World Championship medals in solo artistic swimming, perhaps she should've been nominated instead? Olga Papadatou also medaled at the European Championships in boxing but wasn't nominated here. I also think it's crazy that no women from team sports were included but for the men we had 3 footballers, 2 basketball players and one water polo player. Eleftheria Plevritou was MVP of the European Championships where Greece won silver, and she also led Olympiacos to the Euro League and European Super Cup titles, as well as the domestic trophies as well. She definitely should've been nominated. I also wouldn't have been opposed to our young rower Styliani Natsioula making it but I guess having three rowers would've been too much, and none of her success was at the women's level. Still, she set a world junior record and won three gold medals in double sculls (World U19 and European U19 with Dalidou and European U23 with Kontou, would've won gold at World U23 if she was able to compete). I guess her mediocre result at the World Championships prevented her from being nominated but still, she is only 17, maybe it's time to make a category for younger athletes... If it were up to me, I'd include Platanioti and Plevritou and exclude Gkountoura and Ntountounaki, and possibly substitute Papadatou for Fitsiou as well. Team: Christina Bourmpou/Evangelia Fragkou (rowing) Men's National Water Polo Team Women's National U18 Water Polo Team Women's National Water Polo Team Olympiacos Men's Basketball Team Olympiacos Men's Football Team Olympiacos Women's Water Polo Team Panathinaikos Men's Football Team Panathinaikos Men's Volleyball Team Panathinaikos Women's Volleyball Team I'm not sure why we only have 10 nominees here when the other categories have 12 (usually they only have 10 but I guess this year they increased it). Personally I think there are too many club teams. The men's basketball and women's water polo teams for Olympiacos had success in Europe so it makes sense, and even the two football teams due to the popularity of the sport (though our men's national team got no nomination for dominating their Nations League group), but two volleyball teams is a bit much IMO. I'm glad our U18 women's water polo team got recognition for winning silver at the World Championships, but the U16 men's and U16 women's teams also did the same and didn't get nominated. Also if we're including young teams here then why not the junior women's pair (Elisavet Argyraki and Ioanna Asvesta) who won gold at the World and European U19s, or the junior women's double sculls (Sofia Dalidou and Styliani Natsioula) who also won gold at the World and European U19s with a world record time. Lastly, I think our women should've gotten credit for winning silver at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships. If it were up to me, I'd remove the two volleyball teams and Panathinaikos football team (maybe keep two of them and increase the amount of nominees to 12), and add the men's national football team, Dalidou/Natsioula, and the women's race walking team. They also have nominations for coach, disabled athletes, fair play, and best goal but I'm too lazy to write about them.