Marius Copil, Romanian tennis player

Marius Copil (born October 17, 1990) is a Romanian tennis player playing on the ATP Challenger Tour and a member of the Romanian Davis Cup team.

Career highlights

2009

In September 2009 he received wild card access to the main draw of 2009 BCR Open Romania, where he defeated his fellow countryman Victor Crivoi in the first round, but he lost to Spaniard Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo in the second round.

2010

In May 2010, Marius reached his first ATP Challenger Tour final at the Trofeo Paolo Corazzi as a qualifier. On his route to the final he won in three sets against Australian Bernard Tomic in the semifinals but eventually lost the final to German Denis Gremelmayr.

2011

The year 2011 started very good for Marius. He reached his second Challenger final at the Tretorn Serie+ event in Kazan, Russia. In the final, he won against 4th seeded German, Andreas Beck, in straight sets.

2012

Copil beat World No. 13 Marin Čilić in the first round at the China Open in Beijing. 

ATP Challenger Tour finals

Singles: 4 (2–2)

Manolo Santana, spanish former tennis player who was ranked World No. 1 in 1966. Before winning Wimbledon he was quoted as saying "The grass is just for cows"

Manuel Martínez Santana, best known as Manolo Santana, (born 10 May 1938 in Madrid) is a former amateur tennis champion from Spain who was ranked World No. 1 in 1966. He was born in Madrid.

Wimbledon he was quoted as saying "The grass is just for cows."^{[citation needed]} He thought that tennis should be played on artificial surfaces as opposed to lawn tennis courts like the ones at Wimbledon. This statement has been repeated throughout the years by numerous players including Ivan Lendl, Marat Safin, Marcelo Ríos, and Jan Kodeš (despite his 1973 victory at Wimbledon.

Before winning Wimbledon he was quoted as saying "The grass is just for cows." He thought that tennis should be played on artificial surfaces as opposed to lawn tennis courts like the ones at Wimbledon. This statement has been repeated throughout the years by numerous players including Ivan Lendl, Marat Safin, Marcelo Ríos, and Jan Kodeš (despite his 1973 victory at Wimbledon).

In 1965, Santana, who had begun his career as a ball boy and "picked up" the game, led Spain to unexpected victory over the US in the Davis Cup, and he became a national hero.

Despite his previous Grand Slam successes in the French Championships (1961, 1964) and the U.S. Championships (1965), Santana's win at the 1966 Wimbledon lawn tennis championships was a surprise, where he defeated the sixth seed Dennis Ralston 6–4, 11–9, 6–4. This was his last Grand slam title. His last big tournament win was in 1970 by winning Barcelona where he defeated Rod Laver 6–4 6–3 6–4. He also captured the doubles title in Barcelona that year when he teamed with Lew Hoad to defeat Laver/Andrés Gimeno 6–4 9–7 7–5. He was named to the Hall of Fame in 1984.
At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Santana won the Gold medal in Singles, though tennis was only a demonstration sport at that time. It became a medal sport in 1988 (after another demonstration event in 1984).
He later was captain of the Spanish Copa Davis Team twice, once in the '80s and again for four and a half years in the mid-'90s, until he was dismissed in 1999. Currently, he is the organizer of the Madrid Masters.

He manages the Manolo Santana Racquets club, a tennis club in Marbella, and the Sport Center Manolo Santana, in Madrid.
Santana and Lleyton Hewitt are the only Wimbledon Men's Singles champions to lose in the first round in the following year; Hewitt's loss was during the Open Era, while Santana's was before the Open Era.
He appeared at the 2011 Wimbledon Championships in London, England in the Royal Box to watch the Men's Final which was between his fellow countryman Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic (who had just become World No. 1 after winning his semi-final match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga).

Grand Slam record

French championships

• Singles champion: 1961, 1964
• Doubles champion: 1963

Wimbledon championships

• Singles champion: 1966

U.S. championships

• Singles champion: 1965

Alex Atala, Brazilian chef who runs the restaurant D.O.M. in São Paulo, rated the 4th best restaurant in the world by the S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants. His establishment also holds the title of "Acqua Panna Best Restaurant In South America"

Alex Atala (Milad Alexandre Mack Atala, born June 3, 1968 in São Paulo, Brazil), is a Brazilian chef who runs the restaurant D.O.M. in São Paulo. In May 2012, D.O.M. was rated the 4th best restaurant in the world by the S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants, published by Restaurant magazine. His establishment also holds the title of "Acqua Panna Best Restaurant In South America." He's known for transforming traditional Brazilian dishes, adopting French and Italian culinary techniques to native Brazilian ingredients. Atala also hosts a television show on Brazilian TV channel GNT.


ALEX ATALA - the most highly-rated South American chef of D.O.M. -  a regular chart-topper on the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards :
# 7 (2011) , #18 (2010), #24 (2009) , #40 (2008), #38 (2007), #50 (2006).


Guest Chef at The Sukothai, Bangkok :
“Filled with energy and creativity, Alex Atala, chef owner of the prestigious D.O.M. Gastronomia Brasileira in Sao Paolo, has become known in Brazil and around the world for thoroughly exploring the culinary possibilities of local Brazilian ingredients, uniting its classic basis to completely new techniques.
Alex began his career at the age of 19 as a chef in the Namur hotel school in Belgium and worked at Bruneau Restaurant, owned by 2-Michelin Star Chef Jean-Pierre Bruneau, and also with the legendary Chef Bernard Loiseau at the Côte D’Or Hotel in France. In 1994, he returned to Brazil with a great desire to find his own culinary identity. At the end of 1999, Alex opened D.O.M., the contemporary restaurant with an original cuisine in harmonious balance between the classic and the modern, the known and the wild. Thus began a new era in Brazilian Gastronomy, that of The New Brazilian Cuisine.
D.O.M. has recently been ranked 7^th Best Restaurant in the World by The S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2011, moved up from 18^th last year. It is the 6th time D.O.M. has been included in this review. The restaurant also holds the title “The Acqua Panna Best Restaurant in South America”.”
Bangkok is blessed with many high-profile chefs visiting the Mandarin Oriental and the Sukothai each year. While Oriental’s Le Normandie tradtionally focuses on bringing ‘traditional’ 3 Michelin chefs , mostly from France , the Sukhothai borders on being adventurous and thus at the forefront of current state of the gastronomic art. Alex Atala was one such ‘big name’ that was the most highly-anticipated chef to arrive in many years, not least because , let’s face it, most of us aren’t going to be visiting Brazil anytime soon.
We were thankful that Chef Atala indeed brought many of his signature dishes, packing into his suitcase rare Amazon ingredients like ‘Filhote’ fish, ‘heart of palms’, Chibe – Brazillian cous-cous, producing one of the most exciting and accomplished meals we had in 2011, including 2 ‘TO-CRY-FOR’ dishes!! NOW, we have to visit his restaurant in Sao Paulo!

A menu by Alex Atala is almost an entry into the Wikipedia of Latino Ingredients. Like Noma, Chef Atala is proud to eschew usage of ingredients like foie gras, caviar which would be ‘too easy’ for chefs of this caliber in this day and age. ^{(streelife.com)}

Books

• Por uma Gastronomia Brasileira - Alex Atala - Editora Bei, 2003 - ISBN 85-86518-35-2
• Com Unhas, Dentes & Cuca - Alex Atala - Editora Senac, 2008
• Escoffianas Brasileiras - Alex Atala - Editora Larousse Brasil, 2008 - ISBN 978-85-7635-254-9

D.O.M. is a Brazilian cuisine restaurant in São Paulo run by Brazilian chef Alex Atala. Known for the use of native Brazilian ingredients, D.O.M. has been considered the best restaurant in South America for the last four years by Restaurant magazine, and since 2006 included in the S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants list. In May 2012, the restaurant reached the 4th place in the prestigious list.
The chef Alex Atala researches the ingredientes used in his restaurant and supervises himself its production in various parts of Brazil. Some of these ingredients are: Tucupi juice, pirarucu and piraíba fishes, the herb jambu and the tapioca from manioc flour.

Jota A, one of the best brasilian cartoonists. He received 115 prizes in Brazil and Portugal

Jota A is a famous brasilian cartoonist, he is working for the Jornal O Dia since 1988. He was also an art publisher and last author of one of its graphical project, a student of Visual Arts of the Federal University of the Piauí-UFPI, creator of the Hall Medplan de Humor.

He is one of the most rewarded cartoonists from Brazil, with about 115 prizes in Brazil and Portugal.

Currently he is publisher of the page for children of O Dia. He is the author of two books of cartoons: "Humor Todo o Dia" (1997) and “Cara e Coroa” (2005).
He is partner of the National Foundation of Mood where it gives to lectures and courses of initiation to the drawing of mood for children and adolescents in schools and faculties.