Masters Medals!!

Wow, what a day!!

Finally, success on the lanes in Israel, with a fantastic Gold Medal to Phil Sachs in the men's Masters competition.

In another spectacular effort, Lisa Benedykt won a Bronze Medal in the women's Masters.

The format of the Masters was vastly different to that of previous Maccabiah, with the top 24 men in the All Events and 14 women making it through to the Masters. The competition was then in the format of a head-to-head tennis tournament, where a player would be seeded and drawn to play someone at the other end of the seedings in a best-of-3 game match. The winner proceeded, and the loser eliminated.

In the women's, Lisa, Debbie Sachs and Jackie Vilensky won their first round matches, whilst Lena Sachs and Kerrie Schwartz lost. To see the results from this round, click here.

In the quarter finals, Debbie & Jackie both lost in the deciding third game, whilst Lisa continued on into the semi-finals. To view the results of the quarter finals, click here.

With Lisa Benedykt into the semi-finals, with three Israelis, she couldn't quite match it, but earned herself a much deserved Bronze Medal. Liat Vizenfeld went on to win the Gold Medal in the final. To view the semi-final results, click here. To view the results of the Masters final, click here.

In the men's Masters, Phil Sachs and Daniel Zalcman were the two Australian who had qualified in the top 24. With Phil qualifying in the top 8, he was given a bye in the first round, and Daniel won through to Round 2 in two games. The results of Round 1 can be viewed here.

Round 2 saw both Phil and Daniel win through to the Quarter Finals, but both had to pull out something special to win in three games. To view the results of Round 2, click here.

Phil went on to win his Quarter Final match in two games to proceed through to the Semi Finals, however Daniel lost in three games to one of the eventual finalists, Isaac Amkie from Mexico. To view the Quarter Final results, click here.

In the Semi Finals, Phil knocked over one of the tournament favourites, Or Aviram from Israel in three games to see his way through to the Gold Medal playoff. For the results of the Semi Finals, click here.

In a tense final, Phil Sachs went on to win the Gold Medal in two games. A tremendous effort! For the results of the final, click here.