"We were annoyed with the Israeli pair because at 11:30pm the night before the final they had the final changed to 1pm as it clashed with their jewish festivities…they said they couldn’t play past 4pm which I thought was a load of rubbish and they should be made to play whenever seeing as it is a final…"
Jonathan: Greetings everyone on the final day of our blog. It couldn’t end better than it did, with a title, especially given that starting at sundown, it’s Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Forgiveness. That’s the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. So it’s a really special day. I’m glad we started if off on the right foot.
Yesterday we had issues with the final, because originally the tournament wanted to have the doubles played after the singles, and we knew the singles started at 2:30. So there was a chance our match would conflict with the start of Yom Kippur.
We had big discussions with the tournament staff until late in the night to convince them to play the doubles first. We weren’t sure until the end what time and on which court we would be playing.
It was a great effort by everyone on the tournament staff to accommodate us. We’re really glad with what they did. From their point of view, maybe they lost a little bit business-wise, but they won our happiness and appreciation. I think sometimes an issue like this is a little bit more important than business. Still, we want to thank the tournament staff again for their understanding.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the rituals of Yom Kippur, it involves a fast – no food or drink – for 24 hours starting at sundown today. You also don’t drive during that period.