Eyal Ran (; born 21 November 1972) is an Israeli former professional tennis player and former captain of the Israel Davis Cup team. His career high ATP ranking in singles was 138 (21 April 1997), and in doubles it was 71 (11 October 1999).

Early life

Ran was born in Qiryat Ono, Israel, and is Jewish. His father emigrated to Israel from Romania.

Tennis career

Ran trained at Israel Tennis Centers. He turned pro in 1992. In August 1993 he upset Jonas Svensson of Sweden, ranked # 37 in the world, in

Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

, 6–1, 6–3. After playing at the Australian Open in 1996 and 1997 in the singles competition (he lost in the 2nd round both years), Ran played in his first doubles Grand Slam in 1999, reaching the 2nd round at the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

(he lost in the first round at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open). The following year, he played doubles in all four Grand Slam events, reaching the 2nd round at Wimbledon, but losing in the first round of the other three tournaments. In 2000 he won a

clay court A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis is played. Clay courts are built on a foundation of crushed stone, brick, shale, and other construction aggregate, aggregate, with a thin layer of fine clay particles ...

doubles tournament in Bucharest with Alberto Martin. In 2001, Ran reached the 2nd round at the Australian Open, but lost in the first round of the French Open and Wimbledon (with partner Noam Behr). He often played Challengers and qualifying tournaments for major events.

Davis Cup

He also played on the Israel Davis Cup team.

Davis Cup captain

In 2005, at the peak of a disagreement between the Israeli Davis Cup players and the Israel Tennis Association, Ran was made Israeli Davis Cup captain. Ran spoke to the players and the Association and settled the crisis. Israel (ranked 8th in the Davis Cup standings, with 5,394 points) hosted heavily favored

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

(which won in both 2002 and 2006, and was the top-ranked country in Davis Cup standings, with 27,897 points) in a Davis Cup quarterfinal tie in July 2009, on indoor hard courts at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv. Israel was represented by Dudi Sela,

Andy Ram Andreas "Andy" Ram (; born April 10, 1980) is a retired Israeli professional tennis player. He was primarily a doubles player, and competed in three Olympics. He is the first Israeli tennis player to win a senior Grand Slam event. Ram first ...

Jonathan Erlich Jonathan Dario "Yoni" Erlich (; born 5 April 1977) is an Israeli former professional tennis player. During his career, he was mainly a doubles specialist, having won the men's doubles title at the 2008 Australian Open – Men's doubles, 2008 Aus ...

, and Harel Levy. Russia's lineup consisted of

Marat Safin Marat Mubinovich Safin ( rus, Мара́т Муби́нович Са́фин, , mɐˈrat ˈsafʲɪn, Ru-Marat-Safin.ogg; ; born 27 January 1980) is a Russian former professional tennis player and former politician. He was ranked as the List of ...

(# 24 in the world; former world # 1),

Igor Andreev Igor Valeryevich Andreev (, BGN/PCGN: ''Andreyev'', ISO 9: ''Andreev'', ; born 14 July 1983) is a Russian coach and a former professional tennis player. He won three ATP Tour singles titles, reached the quarterfinals of the 2007 French Open a ...

(26), Igor Kunitsyn (35), and

Mikhail Youzhny Mikhail Mikhailovich Youzhny (born 25 June 1982), nicknamed "Misha" and "Colonel" by his fans, is a Russian former professional tennis player who was ranked inside the top 10 and was the Russian No. 1. He achieved a top-10 ranking by the Associ ...

(44; former world # 8). The stage was set by Safin, who prior to the tie told the press: "With all due respect, Israel was lucky to get to the quarterfinals." The Israeli team's response was to beat the Russian team in each of their first three matches, thereby winning the tie. Levy, world # 210, beat Russia's top player, Andreev, world # 24, 6–4, 6–2, 4–6, 6–2 in the opening match. Sela (# 33) followed by beating Russian Youzhny 3–6, 6–1, 6–0, 7–5. Ran likened his players to two fighter jets on court, saying: "I felt as if I had two

F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it e ...

s out there today, they played amazingly well." The 10,500 spectators were the largest crowd ever for a tennis match in Israel. The next day Ram and Erlich beat Safin and Kunitsyn 6–3, 6–4, 6–7⁽³⁾, 4–6, 6–4 in front of a boisterous crowd of over 10,000. Even the '' Saudi Gazette'' described the doubles match as a "thrilling" win. With the tie clinched for Israel, the reverse singles rubbers were "

dead Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sho ...

", and instead of best-of-five matches, best-of-three sets were played, with the outcomes of little to no importance. Israel wrapped up a 4–1 victory over Russia, as Levy defeated Kunitsyn 6–4, 4–6, 7–6⁽²⁾, while Sela retired with a wrist injury while down 3–4 in the first set against Andreev. In the subsequent Spain defeated Israel in Israel's first appearance in the Davis Cup semifinals. In 2010, Israel lost to Chile in the first round, and to Austria in the playoffs, participated in the Europe/Africa Group I in 2011."Israel's Davis Cup Biography,"
daviscup.com. Retrieved 25 September 2010 In 2017, after 12 years at the helm, he retired as captain. Ran said: "I’m happy I guided the team to the Davis Cup semifinals and for the privilege I had of coaching players like

, Yoni Erlich, Noam Okun, Amir Hadad, Harel Levy, Amir Weintraub and Dudi Sela to great achievements... I’m also happy I had the privilege of coaching Israel’s future team: Yshai Oliel, Edan Leshem, Daniel Cukierman, Ben Patael and Mor Bulis...."

References

External links