Andy Ram

I have known Dan since the age of 10 when I left Jerusalem. I met with him in tournaments in the center, in Ramat Hasharon, in Maccabi North. We played a lot together and over time we became friends and also started to be very much hosted by each other at home.

From that age I remember we spent a lot of time with a small group of a few friends together and for some reason I remember mostly one meeting where we sat with Eran Danek and started telling jokes. Dan, Eran, Ofir Korkus and I were there.
I do not remember exactly who told a joke about David Levy (it was in fashion then):
"David Levy's secretary walks into his office and sees him eating the computer. She asks him 'David what are you doing?', And he replies, 'IBM compatible.' I remember Dan started laughing and couldn't stop. And infected us all.

At 16, Dan entered the gifted boarding school in Wingate where we were already a few guys before him. The close daily connection brought us closer. Sleep in the same room. I know this year has not been easy for Dan, but I do not think he was socially bad.
He had a hard time in my eyes in terms of tennis because he followed us into the boarding school and felt that his level of play was maybe a little less good than ours, and mostly I think the conditions were a bit difficult for him and he had a hard time adjusting. Dan came from his family's home in Herzliya Pituach and in comfortable conditions where he grew up all his life, to a boarding school where there are three in a room in basic conditions. I do not think he was spoiled at all, but the fact that it did him no good.
For me this year where we were together in a boarding school deepened the connection very much. We also started to travel a bit to competitions abroad together, and Dan was the first to know about the love story that is starting to form between me and Shiri (Zlotikman), who is now my wife, when we were together in South America.
The bond between us was built even further when we saw that there was also a good connection between our parents. Both of us and our families have been “in the same boat” when it comes to investing in our tennis and our ambitions.
 
What stood out to Dan the most from a very young age was that he was aiming for a goal. Everything he marked for himself he achieved. Including his lover Sasha. From the age of 12 he saw Sasha he told me "Andy - she will be my girlfriend". From that moment on he did not stop eating my head and all the other friends' heads. All day we only heard  "Sasha, Sasha." but what? She was his at the end.

Also his decision to enlist in my gut and leave everything else is a classic Dan Dan story. Dan loved the country and was not ashamed of it. I do not know many people who have devoted their whole lives to that moment in something like Dan spent on his tennis, and then got up one bright day in the morning and decided to give it up for going to defend the country. Dan impressed me greatly with this decision.

When Dan traveled to the US we stayed in touch all those years. Dan very much developed in New York after college and we would meet regularly for dinner when I arrived in the US for the US OPEN. We had companies that were not dependent on anything. We could hardly talk for a year and then meet and hang out like we only met yesterday morning. Over the years I have loved that the conversations between us have become about our spouses and the children who have been added in each of us to the family cell. We had a special youthful brotherhood that did not disappear over the years but only became more and more special. The connection between us was not accidental. Dan has always been positive and energetic and so am I. Even in the style of playing tennis we were the same. Dan, too, was springy on the court, with a good wally - the similar character was reflected in the style of play of both of us. Also the fact that I am a professional tennis player I have been more successful in my career has never been hostile to our relationship. There was mutual paragon throughout.

Dan Dan enters my heart in a minute and is there forever.