Makedonas

So it will remain this way...

Looks like Vasileia Karachaliou (laser radial) will soon be competing for She is 25 yo and was 9th in Rio. Currently ranked 5th in the world.

2022 Australian Open: Men's singles: Quarterfinals: (4) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. (11) Jannik Sinner ITA 6-3 6-4 6-2 Boys' singles: Third round: (11) Kilian Feldbausch SUI d. Constantinos Koshis CYP 6-2 6-3 Girls' singles: Third round: (6) Michaela Laki GRE d. Dominika Salkova CZE 6-3 6-7(5) 7-6(8) Girls' doubles: Second round: Khayrutdinova/Sagandikova RUS/KAZ d. Laki/Pavlou GRE/GRE 6-3 6-3

2022 Australian Open: Men's singles: Fourth round: (4) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. (20) Taylor Fritz USA 4-6 6-4 4-6 6-3 6-4 Boys' singles: Second round: Constantinos Koshis CYP d. (WC) Jeremy Jin AUS 6-4 6-2 Girls' singles: Second round: (6) Michaela Laki GRE d. Ranah Akua Stoiber GBR 4-6 6-4 6-4 Boys' doubles: First round: (2) Kuzuhara/Wong USA/HKG d. Koshis/Tokac CYP/TUR 2-6 7-6(2) 10-6

What a win for Stefanos Tsitsipas! He displayed a great fighting spirit. I'm so proud of him!

2022 Australian Open: Women's singles: Fourth round: (21) Jessica Pegula USA d. (5) Maria Sakkari GRE 7-6(0) 6-3 Girls' singles: First round: Tijana Sretenovic SRB d. Dimitra Pavlou GRE 6-0 7-6(6) Girls' doubles: First round: Laki/Pavlou GRE/GRE d. (4) Hietaranta/Sierra FIN/ARG 1-6 6-3 10-7 Match point: https://tennisnews.gr/tennis-world/australian-open/item/50303-laki-pavlou

35km Greek National Race Walking Championships (Megara, Greece) - Antigoni Drisbioti 2:47:48. WL and new PB/NR (her previous PB/NR was 2:49:55 from last year where she got gold at the European Race Walking Cup). This is also the 9th best performance of all-time in the world in this event. Of course it is a new event but still, very good performance especially since the conditions today were not the best. She is 37 years old and works as a waitress at her family's tavern in a small city (Karditsa), and trains usually after midnight when the tavern closes Also 2:51:51 for 21 yo Kiriaki Filtisakou, who easily gets the standard for Eugene WCH, her previous PB from last year was 2:55:10. Of course we don't know much yet as this is a new event, but seems like a very good result for her age. Second best in the world (after Drisbioti) as well.

Sakkari lost I also wanted Azarenka and Badosa so I am sad that they lost although I don't mind Krejcikova and Keys either. I'm very happy that Zverev lost. Sorry, I don't like him. Dimitra Pavlou of Greece lost in juniors. She had two set points in the second set but could not convert them. Anyways, I mention her because she is actually the first cousin of Maria Sakkari. I know I said it once before, but I think it's cool how much their family is involved in Greek tennis. Angeliki Kanellopoulou (Maria's mother/Dimitra's aunt) was also a top 50 player in the 1980s. 50% of Greece's top 100 WTA players are from the same family, as we only had two others besides Maria and Angeliki. However, our big talent in the girls' tournament is not Pavlou but Michaela Laki, who is the 6th seed here and won her match yesterday. She is also playing doubles with Dimitra Pavlou.

2022 Australian Open: Men's singles: Third round: (4) Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE d. Benoit Paire FRA 6-3 7-5 6-7(2) 6-4 Women's singles: Third round: (5) Maria Sakkari GRE d. (28) Veronika Kudermetova RUS 6-4 6-1 Boys' singles: First round: Constantinos Koshis CYP d. (6) Gabriel Debru FRA 6-4 4-6 6-4 Girls' singles: First round: (6) Michaela Laki GRE d. Chelsea Fontenel SUI 7-6(2) 6-0 First round: Dimitra Pavlou GRE vs. Tijana Sretenovic SRB Girls' doubles: First round: Laki/Pavlou GRE/GRE vs. (4) Hietaranta/Sierra FIN/ARG Η Βαλεντίνη Γραμματικοπουλου, ο Θοδωρής Μητσάκος, και η Δέσποινα Παπαμιχαήλ αποκλείστηκαν ήδη. Fun fact: Η Δήμητρα Παύλου είναι η πρώτη ξαδερφη της Σακκαρη

Her first and only other Australian Open R4 was 2009. She was 19 then and had two match points but lost. Very nice that after so many years she was able to make it back.

I thought she only retired from singles?

0 as always

Sakkari lost her first 7 third round matches at Grand Slam. She finally won one at the 2020 Australian Open against Keys. It is now her 5th time in the fourth round. Really impressive how much she has been able to improve in just two years!

It will be Ioannis Antoniou and Maria-Eleni Tsiovolou in alpine skiing, and Apostolos Angelis, Maria Ntanou, and Nefeli Tita in cross-country skiing. Tsiovolou (21) and Tita (18) are by far the youngest members of the Greek team, and both will be making their Olympic debuts. Antoniou competed in 2018, Angelis competed in 2014 and 2018, and Ntanou competed in 2010 and 2018. I was expecting to see 42 year old Paraskevi Ladopoulou included, but she wasn't even picked as an alternate in case someone gets COVID

It was only a matter of time... I remember at the last US Open being particularly impressed with all of the WTA seeds advancing and avoiding upsets for the first few rounds. That quickly changed of course, and we ended up with Fernandez vs Raducanu in the final

Both Greeks into the third round! It will get tougher from here, but I hope they can continue to advance. They have decent draws although they are not playing their best tennis yet in my opinion.

Badosa vs Kostyuk third round, two of the hottest girls

Yes, she is 11th and Georgiadou is 15th! It's too bad they both can't make it to the Olympics with this current qualification format. I've said this before but I really wish Vougiouka would come out of retirement for Paris, she is younger than Velikaya and Zagunis who are both still top 10. We'd have a real shot at qualifying in the team event if she can get back into good shape. Our next best sabre fencer is Marina Paizi who is ranked 165...

Ruud withdrew due to injury.

Is that "top rank by year" or "rank at the end of each year" though?

Yeah, I noticed she retired in some of her last tournaments and also had Covid recently so I'm not too surprised. Sakkari has a good draw to make the QF, and now it's even better. Unfortunately Maria did not play well today in her first round match, so she will need to improve in order to capitalise on this draw. One step at a time though...

Thank you. I remember after Orleans, Greek sports sites were reporting what rankings Gkountoura and Georgiadou would move up to, but I didn't see anything this time around. Is there a way to check old rankings? I am curious as to what Gkountoura's best ranking was. I think she was in the top 10 at some point, maybe she was 8th or 9th? It looks like the FIE site only shows your ranking at the end of the year. Also, what about Vougiouka? She was 4th or 5th I believe? At Gkountoura's age I think she has a chance to become the highest ranked Greek fencer ever.

18 year old Greek Sapfo Sakellaridi won her second consecutive ITF futures title in Egypt. She played four finals in a row in the last 4 weeks in Egypt, losing the first two and winning the next two. She also won two doubles titles and reached the finals at the other two events. In singles, she is getting close to the top 500 now. Take a look at her service motion...

Gkountoura is currently ranked 12th, so now how much will she go up after this result?

You must be new to women's tennis. Final will be something random as always, like Anisimova - Mertens or something Yeah I think it will be hard to beat Medvedev for anyone. This isn't clay. I wasn't even sure that Djokovic would beat Medvedev. Personally I think if anyone else wins besides Medvedev, people will say there is an asterisk next to this slam and that they would never have beaten Djokovic if he was able to play.