Written By Josh Rajunov
U18 Boy’s Tennis player Jacob Solomon cruised Wednesday in the group stage of the European Maccabi Youth Games.
The key to Solomon’s 3-0 day? His serve.
After disposing of Switzerland’s Jeff Blumberg in straight sets in his first match of the day, Solomon declared:
“He couldn’t handle the heat.”
The serve was working for the rising senior all morning. He also won his next match in straight sets – again without dropping a game. Solomon’s dominance continued in the afternoon – he actually dropped a game – with a win (4-2, 4-0) over Germany’s Jason Rubinstein. Despite the easy day, Solomon admitted one part of his game still needs work.
“My backhand,” he said.
U18 Girl’s Tennis player Emmy Shulman went 2-0 in her afternoon matches. The first match came down to the wire with a tiebreaker.
“There was added pressure because when we were at the final point of 9-9, it was whoever gets the next two points wins,” Shulman said. “Of course there was added pressure because you want to win.”
The American prevailed against Great Britain’s Libbi Alexenicer 11-9 in the third set.
And she also had no issues in her second match. Shulman swept Germany’s Lisa Blum, dropping only one game.
However, the rest of their U.S. teammates struggled against the field. Fellow U18 Boy’s Tennis player Eric Davis fell in his first match against Great Britain’s Daniel Ben-Yair. The American was reaching for a ball and bloodied his knee after skidding on the unique turf surface.
“It was bothering me,” Davis said. “It took some of my focus away from the actual match.”
Davis would lose his second match to Switzerland’s Jeff Blumberg despite winning his first set 4-1, but he said his backhand slice worked well for him. Davis carried that into his afternoon match, sweeping Germany’s Leon Rabinovici while dropping only one game.
“I really didn’t want to go home tonight thinking how I didn’t win any matches,” Davis said. “It really gave some more confidence going into tomorrow ending on a win.”
Unfortunately, U16 Girl’s Tennis player Mia Albert injured her shoulder in the first set of her first match. Tennis coach Hadas Ronen Vazquez said Albert is questionable to return to Thursday’s action but is optimistic she can play.
U18 Tennis player Josh Marx, and U16 Tennis players Jerry Flombaum, and Eli Gill lost their matchups in straight sets.
Maccabi USA Tennis returns to action Thursday.
Josh Rajunov is from Dallas, Texas, and just completed his freshman year at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications. You can follow Josh on all of his socials @Josh_Rajunov32 and connect with him on LinkedIn here.