WINTER BREAK!

I'm almost done with the semester. Only three more finals.
The first thing I'm going to do is to visit my family and friends at home.
I'm going back to Israel for three weeks.
I'll be on the last day of Chanukkah at home so I'll celebrate Chanukkah.
I'm so excited!!!!

After I'll meet all my family and friends and will have a lots of fun with them I'll come back to MN and start a new semester. Next semester I'll take Math class, Chemistry class, Cermics class and another ESL class.

I can't wait to be done with this semester.. :)))

Mens Singels Ranking



The Top 10:



1. Federer, Roger (SUI)



2. Nadal, Rafael (ESP)



3. Djokovic, Novak (SRB)



4. Murray, Andy (GBR)



5. Del Potro, Juan Martin (ARG)



6. Davydenko, Nikolay (RUS)



7. Roddick, Andy (USA)



8. Soderling, Robin (SWE)



9. Verdasco, Fernando (ESP)



10. Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried (FRA)



Here is a link for the full ranking list:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/Singles.aspx

Rankings

Professional tennis players compete in tournaments almost the whole year.

The tournaments give them points by the results they did in the tournament.

The ranking is update every week, so its very hard to keep on your place(rank) because every week someone can be in your place.

There is a different ranking for womens and mens.

There is also a different ranking for singles and for doubles.

Here is an example of the womens singles ranking for this week:

WTA Singles Rankings

1 WILLIAMS, SERENA USA

2 SAFINA, DINARA RUS

3 KUZNETSOVA, SVETLANA RUS

4 WOZNIACKI, CAROLINE DEN

5 DEMENTIEVA, ELENA RUS

6 WILLIAMS, VENUS USA

7 AZARENKA, VICTORIA BLR

8 JANKOVIC, JELENA SRB

9 ZVONAREVA, VERA RUS

10 RADWANSKA, AGNIESZKA POL

This is the list of the top 10 of the womens.

Here is a link for the full rankings:

http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/page/Home/0,,12781,00.html

My Team!



As I said before, it is my first time being on a team.

I would like to tell you about us, we are nine Golden Gophers that representing the "U" (University of Minnesota).

There are five international players on the team from; Poland, Italy, Australis, Serbia and Israel.

The other four players are from the states.



You can see our picture here:

Here is also some details about each of us:

Name	Yr.	Hometown (Prev School)
Muravnik, Doron	Fr.	Yavne, Israel (Ginsburg Haalon)
Palen, Alexa	Fr.	Rochester, Minn. (Lourdes)
Ferrazzi, Alessandra	Jr.	Brescia, Italy
Forsyth, Peta	Jr.	Wagga Wagga, Australia (Mater Dei Catholic College)
Koprivica, Tijana	Sr.	Belgrade, Serbia
Saxon, Ronni	Jr.	Dellwood, Minn. (Mahtomedi HS)
Sperling, Jackie	Sr.	Mequon, Wis. (Homestead HS)
Spilca, Mariana	Sr.	Belen, N.M. (Sandia Preparatory School)
Wiecha, Magdalena	So.	Brzesko, Poland

We have our website that you can see our team, schedule, results erc..

Here is the link:

http://www.gophersports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=8400&KEY=&SPID=3299

If you are a tennis fan come and support us!

GO GOPHS!!!

The big diffrence between Israel and US..

Tennis is an individual sport! it is so different to play for yourself than to be on a team. You need to take care and responsibility for everything. You can't accuse anyone for bad scores except yourself because you are working for yourself.
In tennis you play singles matches and getting ranking for you as an individual.
Of course that you can't practice by yourself, I mean you can but it is expensive, so you have a team but still everyone practice for his or her success.

Here in the US, it is my first time that i'm on a team. I mean, I have teammates and each of us want the team to be success.
When we are in tournaments we are still playing singles matches but if you are win it's a point for a team, and we are competing team against team.

This is the big difference between Israel and US and it's not about speed, coaches or no matter what.. it's about the way of playing and for what you playing for.

What is the best age to start playing tennis?

This is a common question that many parents asked coaches, because they want their children to be a success. They want their children to become a professional tennis player so they want to know the perfect age to get start with tennis.
There are many opinions about this topic, I choose two articles about it; the first one is in Hebrew and the second one is in English.

Here is the links for the articles:
Hebrew-

http://www.reader.co.il/article/13126/טניס-לגיל-הרך-באיזה-גיל-כדאי-להתחיל

English-
http://www.syl.com/hb/startplayingtennis.html


The both articles says that no matter what age the child start to play tennis, the most important part as a parent is to make sure that the child having fun by playing!.
The first article says that the right age is between 4 to 6 years old. The second one says that the child needs to be at least 3 years old but they recommend on age four. They also says that age four can be most of the time to early for the child so when the child is five years old can be better. The last thing they think is that by the age of seven the child is for sure ready to start playing tennis.

If you want to start playing tennis or just want to play for fun you need at least two important things:
-racquet
-tennis shoe

If you have these things you can go and being on the court. If you dont have the correct shoe you aren't allowed to be on the court.

There are many types of rackuet for beginner/children/adult/professional etc
The major different between them is in the size and weight of each racquet.

I used to bought all my tennis stuff before I came to college in a website that called Tennis-warehouse.
This website have the all stuff for tennis and for any level.
Here is a link to this website:
www.tennis-warehouse.com
I really recommend to buy there, they have the all new stuff and very good and hot prices.

Maybe Tennis shoe looks similar to running shoe, but there is a big different in the sole of the shoe. The sole of a tennis shoe is thicker and stronger. It's keep on your ankles when you brake on the court.
As I mentioned before there are four types of courts. Therefore there is a shoe for each type of court.
Here is an example for a teniis shoe:


There are many good comanies of sport shoe but not all of them sell tennis shoe. for instance: saucony.
It's very important to know the difference and to know which shoe are you going to buy.

About the court

The court size is constant and cannot be changed.


As you see, this is the certified court.
Everyone that want to make a tournament need to get an approval from a referee to use the courts. The referee come to check the sizes of the courts. The net also need to be in a define height, and before every match the referee should check the height of the net.

So, the sizes are define and cannot be changed. Only the surface of the courts can be changed.
There are four surface:
1. Grass
2. Clay
3. Hardcourt (asphalt)
4. Carpet (Indoor)

Grass court:


Clay court:


Hardcourt (Asphalt):


Carpet (Indoor):

A little History..

I would like to interst more and more people to use this blog to become a tennis member or fan.

So for the begining I will tell you a little bit about the Tennis History:



The history of tennis dates back several thousand years. The game was first created by European monks to be played for entertainment purposes during religious ceremonies. To begin with, the ball was hit with the hand. Soon the leather glove came into existence. This was soon replaced with an adaptive handle for effective hitting and serving of the ball. Thus was born the first racquet. With the evolution of the racquet, the tennis balls also underwent frequent alterations. The first tennis ball was wooden. It gave way to a bouncier, leather ball field with cellulose material. The monasteries across Europe cherished the game during the 14th century much to the chgrin of the church. The game soon became very popular, predominatntly in France where it was adopted by the royal family. During the period between the 16th and 18th centuries, the game called "Jeu de paumme"- the game of the palm was a highly regarded by kings and noblemen. The French players would begin the game by shouting the word "Tenez" which mean "play" the game soon came to be called royal or "real tennis". In 1874, Major Walter Wingfield acquired the patent rights for the equipments and rules for the game which bore close resemblance to the modern tennis. On the same year, the first tennis courts emerged in the United States. The game soon spread to different parts of the world like Russia, Canada, China and India. The smooth croquet courts served as ready tennis courts during those times. The originak court devised by Wingfield was in the shape of an hourglass which tapered at the net. It was shorter than the modern court which we have today. His version of tennis courts and the rules of games underwent a fair amount of chabges and amendments till the game gave to the modernized version which is played today.

introduction

My name is Doron Muravnik and I'm a professional tennis player.
I have been playing tennis since I was 8 years old.
I start to practice in my hometown called Yavne. Yavne is a small town and there aren't enough sources that I could to improve myself so I moved to practice in a big tennis center in Tel Aviv. In this center there are 18 courts and a lot of programs and teams that I could be and participate.
I practiced there until August,2009. On August I left my country to the US to be a part of Minnesota tennis team. Nowadays, I studying in UMN and playing for the U.
In this blog you are going to see "all about TENNIS" from my side.