Greg lost to the #1 seed from the UK in his semi-final match and now gets to play for the bronze medal this afternoon against the Israeli Maccabiah gold medal winner from 4 years ago and seeded #2 in the individual draw. This should be an exciting match for sure.
Rachel has completed her squash out of the medal round and had the match of her life yesterday against the Israeli #2. Rachel lost to her in the seeding rounds last week, 3-1, but yesterday, we were on pins and needles as Rachel lost the first game, won the second and third games, lost the fourth, and was down 6-1 in the fifth game and at one point, 8-3. She steadied her game with good rails and no errors to bring the game to 9-7 and then had two spectacular kill shots up front to even it at 9-9. An unforced error gave match ball to her opponent, who then made her own error, for 10-10. Long rallies ending in unforced errors made it 11-11 and then Rachel had some great crosscourt length forcing two errors by her opponent which gave Rachel the game win 13-11 and the match!! Greg coached the match and was exhausted. Rachel was overjoyed playing at the #4 position to have beaten the #2 Israeli. Her improvement over the last two weeks was clearly apparent.
Last night we went to Jaffa, which is known as the oldest city in the world and just a 10 minute cab ride south of Tel Aviv. The city was a bustling Palestinian Arab city until 1948 when the Palestinians decided to bomb the Jews in Tel Aviv - as you can imagine this did not go over too well, and most of the Palestinians left after it was incorporated as part of Tel Aviv. There are still some in the area who co-exist peacefully. It is a beautiful mix of old and new with noticeably different architecture with moorish influence and narrow cobbled lanes in the oldest part of the city. Such a contrast from Tel Aviv, yet so close!!
Today is our last full day in Tel Aviv which ends in a party for all squash players hosted by a South African who has lived in Israel for 20 years. Rachel will then sleep with us at our hotel and we will check out and fly to Eilat, then cross the border into Jordan and head to Petra - it should be an adventurous day for sure!
Susanne is so excited to be together as a family again. Rachel ended up connecting to many of the juniors, most of whom were senior to her, and in the end had many of her own adventures. Bex has been wonderful company to Susanne, although I think she is ready to spend time with Rach and is looking forward to seeing her friends soon.
Stay tuned for more to come!
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