Makedonas

Also I want to ask the people from other countries, how famous are these artists in your countries? For Greece in the 2000s, we almost always sent extremely famous people (Helena Paparizou, Anna Vissi, Sakis Rouvas, Kalomira etc.). In the 2010s, Demy was the only big star but also somewhat Eleftheria Eleftheriou. Then some others were known but not necessarily big stars (Yianna Terzi, Loukas Yiorkas ft. Stereo Mike, Giorgos Alkaios, and Maria-Elena Kyriakou who won the Voice the previous season). I would say the ones who were completely unknown in Greece the last 20 years were Argo (2016), Katerine Duska (2019), Stefania (2020+21), Amanda Tenfjord (2022), and now Victor Vernicos (2023). So if you notice, we transitioned from always sending big stars in the 2000s, to sending some household names and less famous/but still known people in the 2010s, and now we keep sending complete nobodies. Ironically Cyprus used to send the randoms and the B-list Greek singers, and in recent years they have sent some big stars like Eleni Foureira and Tamta, but this year they also sent someone who is unknown in our music industry.

I couldn't even understand what he was saying half the time, and I'm talking about the studio version here. I can't imagine how much more inarticulate he was live... I'm not sure why it was such a rush to send him when he is only 16 and has no experience. We are not San Marino or something to not have other singers. Also I don't know if it is good for someone so young to deal with the criticisms from the public. At least in 2016 the unknown/random group we sent that failed were much older and able to handle criticisms. I feel like this 16 year old kid here was set up for failure and I don't think it's good for his mental health, even when the song came out I saw people writing rude comments to him on his Instagram page. He must be well connected though because no one in Greece heard of him until he was 'selected'

Our third time ever not qualifying When will ERT learn that we need to have a national final? This "internal selection" method is so risky. The first time we did this was 2016 and surprise surprise, that was the first year we didn't qualify for the final. Then in 2017, we had a national final and qualified for the final. Then in 2018, we once again did internal selection and did not qualify (though at least that year we had a good song and the singer was somewhat known within Greece). Since then we have always done internal selection and did okay, but now in 2023 once again we did not qualify... It would also be nice to finally send someone who is actually famous in our country, or at least someone who is actually known in our country. The last few years I don't even know where they find these people when we have so many other options. In the past we used to always send big names and place top 10. I understand this may not be possible but I'm sure there are some washed up Greek artists or one hit wonders who would love to go to Eurovision. I don't mean to be disrespectful to Victor, and I actually liked the song more than last year's entry (which actually finished 8th in the grand final so clearly my personal tastes are not always in our best interests ), but it's really crazy how year after year ERT go against the public's wishes and sent unknown artists to Eurovision and don't even give the viewers a say. But at least in 2021 and 2022 we qualified to the final and placed in the top 10 both years, now in 2023 we didn't even make the final

The European U19 Championships will take place next weekend in France. Once again, no Ireland or the Netherlands... Last year we won 3 gold and 1 silver and finished second overall in the medal count. I have a feeling that we won't do as well this year, especially in number of gold medals. Of our 9 medalists from last year, only 3 are returning this year (and only 1 of them is a gold medalist from last year). We also have Dimitra Kontou who did not compete last year and easily would've won gold in JW1X, but she is not competing this year either as she already is with the senior team training for the European Championships which will take place the following week. I hope to see her at the World U19 Championships this summer and I believe she will go since it will not be so close to another regatta like the scheduling was with the European U19 Championships and the European Championships...

Martha Matoula (WTA number 545) wins 6-1 6-3 over Rosa Vicens Mas (WTA number 185) at the ITF event in Bastad

^And on the same day Pegula lost to Townsend. What a shame that Sakkari's draw has Rybakina in R16 and Swiatek in QF. Would have been nice if she could've been in the bottom half of the draw and had a good shot at making the final... Well there are also others like Muguruza, Kerber, Osaka, Halep...

Swimming (1) Apostolos Christou (men's 100m backstroke)

Also there are usually some surprise results, for example Greece losing to Brazil in 2019.

Okay but Iverson got to play for one season with the GOAT Efthimios Rentzias, who averaged a whole 1.5 ppg during his one season with the 76ers

He always said he will stay at Milwaukee for his entire career, so we will see. He does not have the arrogance of Lebron James to "take his talents to South Beach" for example and create a super team in a "nicer" city like Los Angeles. I mean they had a bad series against the Heat now, but they still finished the regular season as #1 in the East, it's not like they were horrible all year long or something (like the Dallas Mavericks were).

She beat Linette 6-3 6-3 Also, I was thinking to say it the other day when we were discussing Raducanu, but I think Gauff isn't anywhere near as good as she is hyped to be. I think she seems motivated and has good fitness and will have a long career in the top 15-20, but I don't think she will be contending for big titles. It seems that she always loses against the first strong opponent she has to play, and if you look at her draws she always gets kind of lucky to make it so far in the tournaments where she did well to begin with.

So it will probably be for two spots in the quarterfinals, meanwhile is basically guaranteed to be in the quarterfinals...

I don't mean to be disrespectful to other nations, but these draws are so imbalanced. You have one group with teams ranked 1 and 9, and then another group with teams ranked 10 and 40...

in the same group with , what a ridiculous format this is!

Good start for Dora, but I'm worried that we won't qualify in the team event and Despina will miss out on the Olympics again

I don't think anyone should do it, but I always especially hated when a lot of the Balkan/ex-Yugo countries would get American basketball players who never even stepped foot in those countries prior to getting citizenship (I remember had about 5 players like this, also I remember some from and , and I'm sure there are many others). At least in Walkup's case he has lived in Greece since he plays for Olympiacos since 2021, and he is apparently learning the language and says he plans to live in Greece for the rest of his life, though that might be fake. Still I do not think he belongs on our national team, but at least there is some connection to the country. Regardless I think it's even worse when Spain, the most successful national team in Europe the last 20 years, who has the best league in Europe, can't even naturalize from their own league and needs to find Lorenzo Brown who never even played in the Spanish league. (and for the Spanish users who tried to bring up Dorsey playing for Greece when I said this about Lorenzo Brown during Eurobasket, I will say again that Dorsey has a Greek mother and he played briefly in the Greek league and had Greek citizenship since he was a teenager, it's a very different situation from Lorenzo Brown who has absolutely zero connection to Spain) I think Lithuania is the only big European basketball country that does not have any naturalized players? Serbia doesn't either, but they have had several on their women's team (and also in wrestling). Also Greece never did until literally two weeks ago (I am not including real immigrants who lived in the country for many years and waited for the citizenship process or people with Greek ancestry). Also I am not sure about France, Germany, Italy but for sure they do in other sports.

Are you sure? My live rankings app shows that Raducanu is 101 and Burrage is 106. Regardless, it is crazy that a country like Great Britain (which hosts a Grand Slam, has a strong federation, tennis history, and a large population) will not have any women in the top 100. Has this ever happened before? I know Australia's only current top 100 women's player is Ajla Tomljanovic, who literally has no connection with Australia other than the money they gave her, and is basically a mercenary. Pretty fascinating that countries like Montenegro even have top 100 players but not Great Britain. Just shows you that money can't buy success (though in Australia's case it is kind of true because they bought Tomljanovic who is by far their highest ranked women's player even though she hasn't even played yet in 2023). And don't get me started on Kazakhstan and their sportswashing propaganda via tennis... Very well said. I've noticed this trend with these "marketable" players from western countries/the Anglosphere. It seems like they make so much money and get caught up in the glamourous lifestyle and then lose motivation easily (Raducanu, Osaka, even Anisimova and Stephens). Very different from the likes of Swiatek and Sabalenka who are seen as "unmarketable" and work way harder and probably deserve more media attention based on results, but they were not born in the right countries for the media and sponsors to care about. Eastern European success is seen as not "trendy" enough for some...

Greece naturalized Thomas Walkup last week. It's been a pretty big and controversial story here, that a basketball player who has only been here for two years got citizenship. We haven't had any of these sports naturalizations in about 20 years (unlike most of our neighbouring countries who do it religiously for example), and now in the past month we got a Russian wrestler and an American basketball player. I'm not sure what we are trying to achieve here. I was always proud that we only had athletes who had connections to our country (even if they were immigrants from a young age or had a Greek parent or grandparent), and now we can no longer say this... Meanwhile Olympic gold medalist Helen Maroulis, who comes from a Greek family and has a grandmother that still lives in Greece, could not get citizenship in time for Rio 2016 but for some American basketball player of Olympiacos, everything gets fast tracked... Anyways, we still don't know if Walkup will be able to play for the national team, as teams are only allowed to have one naturalized player under FIBA rules. Despite his Greek mother, Dorsey is considered naturalized because apparently they rushed the paperwork back in 2015 when he became a Greek citizen. I was reading that if they get the proper paperwork, he will be considered "not naturalized" due to his Greek origins and then both him and Walkup will be able to play. I'm not sure how possible this is but it's quite interesting.

Even better, she got drawn vs Yastremska. We all know what happened the last time Bouchard played in Madrid against someone who had a doping ban...

I honestly don't think it makes a difference. Due to her ranking she has to face a seeded player in the second round, and based on her level she would not be expected to win against most seeded players. It would be positive for her if she is able to even get past the first round, something she rarely does as it is...

Tsitsipas continues his impressive record against Italians, now 4-0 vs Musetti. Unfortunately he is 0-3 against Alcaraz, but they had very close matches in the past. The last time they played was in the quarterfinals here last year. I want more than anything for Stefanos to win, especially after how the crowds always act towards him against Alcaraz (hypocritical behaviours from them at 2021 US Open and 2022 Barcelona), but I do not expect him to win. I hope to be wrong...

People who bought tickets for today must be thrilled about the amount of tennis they got to see

2023 Billie Jean King Cup Europe/Africa Group II: Greece 3 - 0 Israel Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE d. Mika Buchnik ISR 6-2 6-0 Despina Papamichail GRE d. Lina Glushko ISR 6-1 6-1 Valentini Grammatikopoulou/Martha Matoula GRE d. Mika Dagan Fruchtman/Shavit Kimchi ISR 6-1 6-0 Greece 2-1 Malta Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE d. Elaine Genovese MLT 6-1 6-2 Francesca Curmi MLT d. Despina Papamichail GRE 4-6 7-6(6) 6-4 Valentini Grammatikopoulou/Despina Papamichail GRE d. Elaine Genovese/Helene Pellicano MLT 6-1 6-2 Greece 2-1 Bosnia and Herzegovina Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE d. Dea Herdzelas BIH 6-1 1-0 ret. Nefisa Berberovic BIH d. Despina Papamichail GRE 6-4 6-4 Valentini Grammatikopoulou/Despina Papamichail GRE d. Nefisa Berberovic/Anita Wagner BIH 6-3 7-6(3) Greece 1-2 Portugal Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE d. Matilde Jorge POR 6-3 6-2 Francisca Jorge POR d. Despina Papamichail GRE 7-5 7-6(3) Francisca Jorge/Matilde Jorge POR d. Valentini Grammatikopoulou/Martha Matoula GRE 6-2 6-4 Greece 2-0 Estonia Valentini Grammatikopoulou GRE d. Elena Malygina EST 6-2 6-4 Despina Papamichail GRE d. Anett Kontaveit EST 6-2 6-4