American, Frances Tiafoe, has caused the first big upset of the Wimbledon men’s singles tournament by beating third seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.
Tsitsipas, playing his first match since his French Open final defeat by Novak Djokovic on June 13, was on the backfoot from the beginning against a 57th-ranked opponent who took the game to him.
Tiafoe broke serve in the opening game and it set the tone for a match in which Tsitsipas, who had said at the weekend that he was feeling more confident on grass, showed only occasional flashes of brilliance.
Tiafoe went 5-4 up in the second set, after Tsitsipas saved two break points, and held his nerve when the Greek had three chances to break back.
The American broke serve again at the start of the third set, saved two break points and then had three match points on Tsitsipas’ serve to wrap things up in just over two hours. He did it on the third as Tsitsipas netted a backhand.
Stefanos Tsitsipas has once again endured a short Wimbledon campaign. Photo: Reuters/ Toby Melville.
“Today was big. I definitely needed that. That guy’s special, he’s going to do a lot of great things … but not today,” Tiafoe said at a post-match conference.
Tsitsipas also went out in the opening round on his last previous appearance at the grasscourt tournament in 2019, when he was seventh seed. Wimbledon was not played last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Greek still has the doubles to play with his younger brother Petros.
Tiafoe’s next opponent will be Spain’s Roberto Carballes Baena or Canadian Vasek Pospisil.
Greek Australian, Ange Postecoglou, has innumerable obstacles to overcome after taking on the manager role at Celtic, a football team which spectacularly fell from its perch last season.
But Postecoglou’s life lessons as a Greek migrant resettling in Australia, coupled with his immersion in football from a young age and his coaching prowess, have prepared him.
Speaking with The Scotsman, the Celtic manager credited all these lessons to his mum and dad, Jim and Voula, who made “unending sacrifices” for him when they first made the move from Athens, Greece to Australia.
“I look at myself now, as a 55-year-old man, and I just can’t believe what my parents went through. What they would have gone through to take a young family halfway round the world, on a ship that takes us 30 days to a country where they don’t speak the language, they don’t know a soul, they don’t have a house, they don’t have job,” Postecoglou tells The Scotsman.
Greek Australian, Ange Postecoglou, has innumerable obstacles to overcome after taking on the manager role at Celtic.
“People say they go to another country for a better life. My parents did not have a better life, they went to Australia to provide opportunities for me to have a better life.
“All I remember is my father working hard. He’d be gone for work before I ate my breakfast and come home at night, have dinner, sit on the couch and fall asleep and go and do the same thing the next day.
“The only time I ever got to see any joy in my dad was when we went to the football on a Sunday. So that did make an impression on me because I made a quick connection that football is something that makes him happy… so if I love this like he does, it will get me close to him.”
‘He was my harshest critic’:
Postecoglou goes on to say that from the youngest age, he developed an “encyclopedic knowledge” of football in the UK, ensuring he “nourished” his “brain with everything about football from this side of the world.”
At the same time, he’d spend hours sitting next to his dad at three o’clock in the morning watching the football and listening to him point out the entertainers and the teams that were scoring goals.
A young Ange Postecoglou with his family. Photo: ABC News.
It was this bond which motivates Postecoglou to produce teams which his dad would enjoy watching.
“It’s a simple premise. It’s important to me because that was the driver for my whole football career. He was my harshest critic and probably all of you have similar kinds of dads. My dad never told me he loved me, he didn’t give me cuddles. He was my biggest critic all the time,” he told The Scotsman.
“He’s not with us now, he passed away a couple of years ago, but he’s in my head. I know that and every time my team plays, I’ll sometimes have an ugly 1-0 win and I know what he’s saying: ‘Don’t celebrate because that was crap.’
“I don’t think that’s unique, I think a lot of people resonate with that, understand that was how it was in my generation through having a similar upbringing. I just happen to be in a position where I can live that dream out.”
Australian whisky has grown strongly over the last 12 months, but the local industry remains largely comprised of micro-distillers that are way too small to compete on price with the big Glens of Scottish single malt.
In fact, Michael Sergeant from Copper & Grain Distilling Co says because many distilleries are pricing their wares upwards of $200 for a 500ml bottle, Australian whisky remains largely confined to the domain of enthusiasts.
“A lot of Australian single malts are at the higher end of the market and therefore not accessible to people who want to try them,” Michael told goodfood.
Alex Gondzioulis of Sydney venue The Wild Rover agrees and says price remains the biggest barrier for Australian whisky, which has already proven its quality on the world stage.
“Our distillers have won world’s best awards over many years,” Gondzioulis told goodfood.
Morris whisky barrels Photo: goodfood.
“But it is a challenge for bars to be able to afford to pour some of these whiskies at a price a consumer is willing to pay.”
To combat this, Copper & Grain, a new subsidiary of Casella Family Brands, has this month launched Morris Whisky, giving a new lease of life to the 162-year-old Morris family winery.
Best known for its critter wine juggernaut Yellow Tail, Casella has made great strides into premium wine, brewing and now whisky over the past decade.
With its resources and financial backing, Copper & Grain is able to produce whisky at a scale that allows more economical pricing. However, there still isn’t serious local competition for the imports.
That’s why only time will tell what the future of Australian whisky is.
One in four people in the workforce over the age of 50 don’t believe they will ever retire – but it’s evenly split whether they’re working for love or money, The Sydney Morning Heraldreports.
A nationally representative survey of 2830 Australians aged over 50 found financial insecurity was a key reason; 36 percent of those who don’t expect to retire rated their finances below five out of 10.
However, the same proportion of people rated their finances 7 or more, suggesting that not wanting to retire is not purely a financial decision.
Stella Avramopoulos, chief executive of female-focused charity Good Shepherd, told the SMH that older women were likely to be among those wanting to work for financial reasons.
Stella Avramopoulos, chief executive of female-focused charity Good Shepherd.
Women’s superannuation balances were on average 40 percent lower than men because of structural inequalities, older women were the fastest growing group of homeless people and women had borne the brunt of job losses during the pandemic, she said.
“We need to ensure retirement isn’t a pipedream for younger women by working towards super parity,” Ms Avramopoulos told the SMH.
The study was conducted by Newgate Research for the COTA Federation (Councils on the Ageing) and an overview of findings will be published in the State of the (Older) Nation 2021 report.
The highest selling price worldwide for a sculpture by the pioneering Greek artist Takis (Panagiotis Vasilakis, 1925–2019) was achieved by VERGOS Auctions, the largest Greek auction house.
The sale occurred during the recent auction of Modern Greek Painting and Sculpture, with Historical, Philhellenic and Folklore Items, held on June 17 at the Athinais Cultural Center.
The sculpture was initially appraised at €100,000 – 150,000, but after keen interest was expressed by buyers both from Greece and abroad, it sold for €190,300 to a Greek collector.
It belongs to the famous ‘Signals’ series by the internationally recognised sculptor, and was exhibited in 2008 at the Xippas Gallery in Paris.
Takis’ historically highest selling price for the global art market marks another achievement for VERGOS Auctions, following two other recent successes for Greek artists:
(1) at the Painting & Sculpture auction held in January, the highest selling price for the Greek art market and among the 5 highest worldwide (€ 378.120) was achieved by the auction house for the painting “The apotheosis of beauty” (1940) by Konstantinos Parthenis (1878 – 1967),
Painting by Konstantinos Parthenis.
(2) the highest price worldwide (€28,274) for the “White Eikonostasio” (2003) by the contemporary artist Stephen Antonakos (1926 – 2013). In an earlier auction, the highest selling price in Greece and 4th worldwide was also achieved, for the work (2 “Untitled” 001) by Giannis Kounellis (1936 – 2017) which sold for €259,600.
At the auction of June 17, in the category of Historical and Philhellenic Objects, strong interest was also shown for the Portrait of Theodoros Kolokotronis (1843) by the French painter Pierre Bonirote (1811 – 1891) which ended up selling for € 34,250 (estimated price after appraisal € 8,000 – 12,000).
For more information on the results of the auction, interested parties may visit the website www.vergosauctions.com.
Lambros Konstantaras was one of the most important Greek actors in theatre and cinema. He may have excelled in the demanding genre of comedy, but the dramatic roles he played in the theatre were praised by critics.
Early Life and Career:
Lambros Konstantaras was born on March 13, 1913, in Kolonaki, at 13 Ploutarchou Street, as he characteristically emphasised, noting his relationship with the number 13. Son of a goldsmith, he worked close to his father and went to Paris in 1931 to study the art of gold-smithing.
One day, he happened to be playing a comedian in a movie and then in a play directed by the great French playwright, Louis Juve. Enchanted by the lights of the ramp, he decided to make a turn in his life and take up acting.
After working in several theatre groups he formed his own with Jenny Karezi, Maro Kontou and Nikos Rizos, often working together with such actresses as Ellie Lambeti, Aliki Vougiouklaki and others. However, Konstantaras was far better known as a film actor, playing leading roles in more than 80 movies.
Death and Legacy:
In 1969, Konstantaras won the acting award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival for his performance in Vassilis Georgiadis’ film “The Blofatzis.”
He was a great actor, with his original talent being evident in the wide range of roles he played both in cinema and theatre.
The actor passed away on June 28, 1985 in “Asklipieio” of Voula. In the last years of his life he was facing serious health problems due to successive strokes.
A former banker, who splurged some of the $3.75 million he defrauded from the Commonwealth Bank on cocaine, a lavish lifestyle and a home, has been spared immediate jail because of the delay between his offending and sentence, The Agereports.
In 2008 and 2009, George Vrettakos abused his trusted position as a mobile lender to falsify documents and create three lines of credit using false names, and made 130 fraudulent transactions to personally gain $1.48 million.
The Commonwealth Bank discovered Vrettakos’ scam in 2010 but chose not to report him to police even though he made admissions and said he was prepared to implicate other bank staff in the racket.
George Vrettakos defrauded around $3.75 million from the Commonwealth Bank.
According to The Age, he told the bank’s investigators at the time: “We had beautiful lunches. We had beautiful wines. We snorted coke – a lot of it. We met a lot of girls. That’s what I got out of it. Stupid.”
The bank only filed a police report in 2018 whenThe Age raised questions about the case.
Vrettakos told police he defrauded his employer because he was under pressure at work, needed to repay a $150,000 debt over a failed business venture and that his offending came after his wife suffered a serious health problem.
Vrettakos was sentenced in the County Court on June 24.
By the time Vrettakos was charged and faced court for the first time last year, more than a decade had elapsed since his offending.
County Court judge, Gavan Meredith, on June 24 cited delay as a strong mitigating factor in Vrettakos’ favour and spared the 41-year-old an immediate stint in prison after he pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
“It is apparent that the delay in your case has been inordinate,” Judge Meredith said, according to The Age.
Vrettakos’ three-year jail term was wholly suspended for three years, meaning the only way he will go into custody is by breaching the court order and offending again.
Greek American student, Andreas Giannitsopoulos, is missing following the 12-storey Champlain Towers South building collapse in Surfside, Miami on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The 21-year-old and his family are originally from Xanthi in northern Greece, but they have been living permanently in Texas for years.
Giannitsopoulos was studying Business Strategy and International Markets at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, but was staying with a family friend in Miami at the time of the building collapse.
“I’m waiting on my two best friends – one of them is my 21-year-old son. I’m crushed,” Kostas said.
Andreas Giannitsopoulos is missing following the 12-storey Champlain Towers South building collapse in Surfside.
The father said he was holding out hope that his son, who is an athlete, and friend would be found alive. But at the same time, he was bracing himself for bad news.
There are at least nine people dead and 156 people still missing after the residential building partially collapsed on Thursday. Search and rescue teams are racing to find survivors.
The cause of the collapse is not yet known but a 2018 engineering report showed that the building had “major structural damage” to a concrete structural slab below its pool deck that needed to be extensively repaired.
Due to the recent developments regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, from Monday 28.06.2021 through Friday 09.07.2021 the Consulate General of Greece in Sydney will only be handling emergency and strictly necessary consular cases, by appointment only.
Should you need to contact the Consulate General of Greece in Sydney for emergency cases that require an appointment, you can do so by email at grgencon.sid@mfa.gr or by phone on +61292845500.
Please note that already scheduled appointments for the above period (28.06.2021-09.07.2021) are postponed until further notice.
The Consulate thanks people in advance for their understanding and cooperation and they remain at people’s disposal for any further assistance.
If you had told me the solution to partying during Australia’s lockdown laws was a 5-foot-by-2.4-foot-by-6.2-foot box turned nightclub, I wouldn’t have believed you.
But it’s undeniable that Greek Australian twin brothers Harry Nathan Labrakis and Evangelos “Boonie” Labrakis are changing the party game, creating the world’s smallest mobile nightclub, entitled: The “Doof Shed”.
“Originally the intention was to provide one on one performances during covid, so I designed the shed to be one and a half metres long so that I could do one on one performances just to keep the spirit of dance music culture alive,” Harry said to The Greek Herald.
“I know Harry is all about the one on one stuff but for me it’s all about the doof. So Harry was all this one on one business, but I managed to fit seven people in there,” Evangelos chuckled.
The creation of the nightclub ultimately came, the twins explain, due to their “crazy love” for dance music.
“When we were 15 years old, we were DJing weddings, Greek weddings, just so that we could save money to buy better gear,” Evangelos said to The Greek Herald.
“We were just crazy about wanting to be DJ’s and just to be able to mix anything. We even cross-wired two stereo’s to be able to make sounds overlap each other. We ended up buying a couple of discmans and trying to overlay them.
“We’re just crazy about dance music.”
To create the Doof Shed, the twins repurposed a corrugated metal shed with the help of their father and painted the name with bright neon graffiti.
Harry Nathan DJing in the “Doof Shed.” Photo by Wesley Tan
The shed features a Pioneer DJ setup, focal sound system, intelligent lighting and a smoke machine. The nightclub offers a unique experience that comes during a time of struggle for Sydney’s club scene, which suffered greatly because of the pandemic.
It is even set up with a “Full Send” button to activate the full-on nightclub experience: smoke machine, strobe, flashing lights and lasers.
The Labrakis twins managed to break the previous Guinness World Record for the smallest nightclub, previously held by the 2.01 metre-high Club 28 (UK). However, while the intention was never to get a Guinness World Record, the boys discovered along the way that it had high potential for growth.
“That was not the intention at all,” Harry said, when asked about the World Record.
Photo by Wesley Tan
“The intention was to give back to a dance music community that has given us so much growing up and has taught us so much.”
“We somehow slipped into the Guinness thing by sheer chance to be honest. It wasn’t until a few of our friends were like, ‘Oh, man, this is a really small, bloody nightclub. Surely there’s some sort of thing to compare it to.'”
Harry Labrakis knows quite a lot about the Australian music scene, being an electronic music DJ who records his own material under the name Harry Nathan. According to Triple J, he offers a fresh take on lofi house & laidback disco, residing between the lines of reality and fantasy, both sonically and visually in his storytelling. Indie Shuffle also called his song “Harriet Tubman?” the best lo-fi house track of 2020.
Similarly, ‘Boonie’ is getting more active in the music-mixing community, making techno music via car engine recordings.
For the club’s grand opening, the twins created a ballot system and gave people an opportunity to experience the club in all it’s fashionable glory. All proceeds from the event went to mental health charities to aid those affected by the pandemic.
With new lockdowns in Sydney, people may just be ringing up the Labrakis boys and begging for a new taste of nightlife.
“We feel like there’s always a bit of fun to be had,” Harry concluded.
“No matter where you’re at. If you have that kind of mindset and a positive mindset, then you can get through anything.”
