Ilana Berger ( he, אילנה ברגר; born 1965) is a Mexican-born Israeli professional

tennis player Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cove ...

and Olympian. Berger reached her highest individual ranking on the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour. WTA Tour tourna ...

on 10 August 1992, when she became # 149 in the world. On 25 November 1991, she peaked at world number 153 in the doubles rankings.

Biography

Berger was born on 31 December 1965, in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. She started playing tennis at the age of 7.

Tennis career

In the late 1980s, after serving for two years in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

, Berger became a professional tennis player. She won 7 singles titles in the ITF Women's Circuit. Berger won 12

Maccabiah Games The Maccabiah Games (a.k.a. the World Maccabiah Games; he, משחקי המכביה, or משחקי המכביה העולמית; sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Olympics"), first held in 1932, are an international Jewish and Israeli multi-sp ...

medals during her career, including gold, a few of them as a "veteran" while playing Mixed Doubles with

Shlomo Glickstein Shlomo Glickstein ( he, שלמה גליקשטיין; born 6 January 1958) is an Israeli former professional tennis player. He reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 22 in November 1982, and his career-high doubles ranking of World ...

. At the

1989 Maccabiah Games The 13th Maccabiah Games brought 4,500 athletes to Israel from 45 nations. Jewish athletes from Hungary participated for the first time since World War II, Jewish athletes from Russia had been permitted, by their country, to play for the first ti ...

she beat American

Andrea Berger Andrea Berger (born January 28, 1970) is an American former professional tennis player. At the 1989 Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv, she won a gold medal in the women's doubles event, and was runner-up to Ilana Berger (no relation) in the singles, ear ...

to win a gold medal in women's singles. Berger was elected as one of three best tennis players in Israel's history in the celebrations of Israel's first 50 years. Berger was Israel's Women's National Champion for five years. Berger competed for Israel at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

. Berger represented Israel in 26 meetings in the

Federation Cup Federation Cup or Fed Cup is the former name of the premier world team competition in women's tennis. Federation Cup may also refer to: * Capital Football Federation Cup, an Australian territory-based association football tournament *Federation Cup ...

from 1986–92, going 19–21.

Journalism career

At the age of 26, she decided to study literature and journalism. She worked 7 years as a sports correspondent for ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...

''. She coaches tennis privately and is a freelance sports journalist. Today she is chief editor of the internet site of the

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

Sports Center.

ITF Finals

Singles Finals: 13 (8-5)

Doubles Finals: 25 (15-10)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Ilana 1965 births Living people Tennis players from Mexico City Mexican Jews Mexican emigrants to Israel Mexican people of Israeli descent Israeli female tennis players Israeli people of Mexican-Jewish descent Tennis players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Jewish Israeli sportspeople Jewish tennis players Olympic tennis players of Israel Maccabiah Games gold medalists for Israel Maccabiah Games medalists in tennis Competitors at the 1989 Maccabiah Games