Makedonas

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

Tsitsipas is now 9-0 vs de Minaur, and 11-0 if you count qualifying and Challenger matches. I remember in 2018 when Tsitsipas beat him at the Next Gen ATP Finals, some people were trying to say de Minaur would be better in the future. So far, that has definitely not been the case. I guess when you are Australian for example you will get way more hype. Same thing happened with the Canadian Shapovalov who Tsitsipas also beat this week

Slovakia almost came back from 0-2 down to win, I believe they even served for the match in deciding doubles but lost 2-3 in the end.

Is anyone surprised at this point? Raducanu has shown time and time again that she does not belong at this level. However, she is "Britain's darling" so she will always get all the attention and endless wildcards to every tournament for the rest of her career. Also it's pretty crazy how Sakkari vs Pliskova was a R1 match when Bucsa vs Korpatsch and Maria vs In-Albon were also R1 matches

Elena Tsineke got drafted in the WNBA to the Washington Mystics. She will become the 5th Greek woman to ever play in the WNBA. Unfortunately, I guess this means she won't be able to play Eurobasket this year? She would really be helpful in my opinion. It will be tougher to try and make the Olympics without her, though if we can pull off a top 6 finish here I guess she will be available for the OQT next year...

I don't agree with this format, there are too many games nowadays. If you don't make WC then you shouldn't get another chance to make the Olympics. Just my two cents.

2023 European Wrestling Championships: GOLD Dauren Kurugliev (Men's Freestyle 86 kg) SILVER Georgios Kougioumtsidis (Men's Freestyle 79 kg) BRONZE Maria Prevolaraki (Women's Freestyle 53 kg)

So we ended with 3 medals (I don't think we'll win anything in GR). I'm not sure what to say about Kurugliev's gold medal. I am against naturalising athletes and was always proud that Greece in the last 20 years really did not do this, unlike other countries, but now we are guilty of it too but it's still hard for me to celebrate. However, in wrestling everyone does it, I mean even countries like Serbia and Slovakia, so I guess it's not the end of the world if we do it once. Silver for Kougioumtsidis is a great result as he is only 21 yo. Of course he won gold last year but I'm still happy with this. Prevolaraki winning bronze is a bit disappointing. This is her 7th European medal but she has still never won gold. She said she will stop after Paris 2024, so she'll only have one more chance to win a European gold I guess...

We played each other in 2019, GB won both singles matches in three sets in Bath (Konta d. Sakkari and Boulter d. Grammatikopoulou). With Konta now retired and with Sakkari becoming a top player since then, I think we would have a better chance than last time. Especially if it's on clay...

We gained promotion to Group I after beating Estonia. Maria Sakkari was sick and could not play, but Despina Papamichail had an upset win 6-2 6-4 over Anett Kontaveit

He is competing for Greece at the upcoming European Championships! It was announces yesterday by our media.

New huge NR in the men's discus throw 19 yo Dimitrios Pavlidis, who previously had a PB of 59.73, threw 64.90m today He broke the Greek NR of 63.10 which is from 2002! Of course he also broke the Greek U23 NR which was 62.58 from 1983.

64.90, νέο πανελλήνιο ρεκόρ! (63.10 το προηγούμενο από το 2002!)

Big win today for 18 yo Dimitra Pavlou at the ITF W40 event in Split, Croatia The world number 790 defeated world number 159 Elena Gabriela Ruse 7-6(5) 7-5 in the first round! She came from qualifying with a 6-1 6-4 win over world number 403 Anna Turati and 6-0 6-2 over world number 576 Adrienn Nagy Very good results from Pavlou this week, who is Sakkari's first cousin. With the resources she has access to, being the niece of a former top 50 player and cousin of a current top 10 player, I wonder how far she can go in her career. It's a shame that Maria Sakkari's siblings did not ever play tennis, Greece could've had more good players

The article says he is already in Greece to prepare his paperwork, so I wonder if it will not happen until after 2023 based on what you said.