60 Sporting Heroes for 60 Years: No. 9 Shahar Pe'er

How proud we were of the youngster from Maccabim whose rise up the world rankings was a joy to behold.

By JEREMY LAST
peer shouts 224.88 (photo credit: AP)
peer shouts 224.88
(photo credit: AP)
When, in December last year, The Jerusalem Post opened up the vote for the 2007 Israeli Sports Personality of the Year to the public it was no surprise that Shahar Pe'er won by a country mile. The tenacious 20-year-old could do no wrong, smiling her way to two Grand Slam quarterfinals last year and keeping Israelis up till the wee hours to view her awe inspiring matches. How proud we were of the youngster from Maccabim whose rise up the world rankings was a joy to behold. This year she continued to quietly make history, when she competed at the Qatar Open in Doha and became the first women's tennis player from Israel to play in a top level tournament hosted by a Gulf State. However, all has not stayed totally rosy for Pe'er, and despite her massively impressive credentials at such a young age she still has far to go if she wants to become the best ever in the history of this country. Her poor performance at the crucial Fed Cup tie against the Czech Republic this past weekend, where she lost both her singles matches against much lower ranked opponents, and her subsequent non-professional childish reaction illustrated just one part of her game that needs to be improved on. At the time of writing Pe'er is ranked 18 in the world and over the past few months has been unable to make the leap into the top ten that she needs to if she wants to be considered one of the all time greats. With the French Open and then Wimbledon coming up on the horizon Israelis will be able to sit back and give young Shahar the chance to impress once again.