Ouch! Israel's judoka Ze'evi defeated in 43 seconds

One of Israel's best chances for an Olympic medal came crashing down on the judo mat on Thursday morning when judoka Arik Ze'evi lost his first match in just 43 seconds. This was Ze'evi's fourth and final Olympics, and he had been widely expected to come home with a second Olympic medal after he was crowned European champion for the fourth time in April. But Ze'evi lost to Dimitri Peters in the men's 100 kilogram match when the German used an ippon on the Israeli. All of Israel's judokas have now been eliminated from the games.

However, Wednesday proved to be a good day for Israel's Olympians. A major surprise of the day came at Wimbledon, where dynamic tennis duo Yoni Erlich and Andy Ram defeated the sixth-seeded Swiss pair, Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka.

Federer and Wawrinka, the gold medalists at the 2008 Beijing Games, went out 1-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3. Erlich and Ram — known locally as AndYoni — will face the top-seeded Bryan brothers in the quarter finals on Thursday.

Ram and Erlich were elated to have faced Federer in doubles. "It's not that we play him every day," Ram said.

"In the beginning, we were very nervous. You could see it on the court," he said. "When we sat and we talked, we just tried not to make as many mistakes as we did in the first set, and we managed to do so, and we kept the level."

Federer commented after the match, "I thought we played an excellent first set. Conditions were tough. They were breezy, a lot of shadow on the courts. But that didn't disrupt our great playing. It was a pity we couldn't create a few more, maybe, opportunities throughout the second set. But obviously they found a bit of a way to get back into the match. They definitely played better once sort of the shadow went, all the flags, all the spectator shadows were gone. It was more clean tennis."

Wawrinka said: "One or two points can change the match, especially on grass courts."

Israel also had success in the pool, where Yaakov Toumarkin went through to the final of the 200-meter backstroke. Toumarkin is just the second Israeli to reach an individual Olympic swimming final, eight years after Eitan Orbach competed in the 100-meter backstroke final in Sydney. Tourmarkin also set a new Israeli record on Wednesday of 01:57:33 minutes. He will be up against Americans Tyler Clary and Ryan Lochte in Thursday's final.

Gal Nevo just failed to qualify for the 200-meter individual medal, coming 10th overall in Wednesday's semi-finals.

Gymnast Alex Shatilov finished Wednesday's individual all-around final in 12th place, but proved that he had a good chance of a medal in Sunday's floor exercise final after the judges awarded him 15.6 for his floor performance — the highest score in Wednesday's competition.

Windsurfer Lee Korzits strengthened her position in the top three of her competition, which continues on Thursday. Also Thursday, Israeli duo Gidi Kliger and Eran Sela were due to compete in the men's 470 Class sailing competition. Shahar Zubari's chances of a medal were looking slimmer after his performance on Wednesday, and he is currently in 10th place overall in the men's windsurfing event.

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