From Ra’anana around the world and back: Edan Leshem takes a swing for Sharsheret - interview

“I feel it’s a great cause and that I really want to help,” Leshem said. “I’m just there to support the players and give them the best experience of the tournament.”

For Edan Leshem, Friday’s Sharsheret tennis tournament in Ra’anana will bring him back to a place where his own tennis journey began.

More than two decades after he first picked up a racket at the Ra’anana tennis center as a five-year-old, Leshem will return to those courts in a very different role.

Rather than competing for himself, the former Israeli professional will be helping run the tournament, working alongside his longtime coach and colleague Ron Becker to make sure the players have the best experience possible.

For Leshem, now 29, it is a fitting way to give back to a sport that has been such a major part of his life.

“I feel it’s a great cause and that I really want to help,” Leshem said. “I’m just there to support the players and give them the best experience of the tournament.”

The inaugural Sharsheret Israel Tennis Tournament 2026, taking place this Friday at the Ra’anana Tennis Center, will bring together women from the community for a day of competitive tennis, social connection and support while raising awareness and funds for Sharsheret’s work supporting women and families affected by breast and ovarian cancer.

Sharsheret provides resources for Jewish women at risk of breast, ovarian cancer

Founded in 2001, Sharsheret provides personalized support, education and community programs for Jewish women and families dealing with breast and ovarian cancer, as well as for those facing hereditary cancer risk.

Its services include peer support, mental health and genetic counseling, educational programming and practical assistance throughout diagnosis, treatment and survivorship.

The organization launched an Israel initiative in 2024, expanding its support network and programs to women, men and families in Israel.

That includes connecting people with peers who have experienced cancer themselves, developing support groups and providing educational resources around breast and ovarian cancer and genetics.

That community component is particularly important to the Ra’anana tournament. The event is not simply about raising money or playing tennis.

It is designed to bring together women who may have shared experiences with cancer and give them an opportunity to connect in an environment centered around activity, friendship, and strength.

While all the players in Friday’s event will be female, the spectators will include women, men and children of all ages, cheering on their wives, moms, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, aunts, cousins and friends.

Leshem became involved after tournament co-chair Ariella Eltes approached him about helping organize the event. He quickly volunteered to take responsibility for the tournament structure, including organizing the groups and managing the competition.

He will be joined by Becker, the coach Leshem first worked with after moving to Ramat Hasharon at age seven.

A full-circle moment for Leshem

It is a remarkable full-circle moment for a player whose own relationship with tennis began almost by accident.

Leshem was an energetic five-year-old living near the Ra’anana tennis center when his grandfather, who played tennis himself, suggested the sport as a way to channel some of that energy.

What began as an activity to tire out a young boy eventually became a professional career.

By the time Leshem was seven, he had begun working with Becker and found himself surrounded by other young players who were competing seriously. He quickly discovered that he could hold his own.

“I realized I’m not that bad,” Leshem recalled. “I can play some tennis.”

The competition became addictive. He began playing national tournaments, then traveling internationally, and eventually established himself as one of Israel’s leading players of his generation.

Leshem reached the final of the Israeli national championships as a teenager, facing Israeli star Dudi Sela, and also trained with Amos Mansdorf, one of the most accomplished players in Israeli tennis history.

He joined Israel’s Davis Cup team at 17 and went on to represent his country on the international stage. His professional career included appearances in ATP events and extensive competition on the ITF and Challenger circuits.

His best period came in 2017, when he climbed into the world’s top 250, reaching a career-high No. 249 in the ATP singles rankings in December of that year. He also reached a career-high No. 349 in doubles in 2018.

Along the way, Leshem collected several ITF titles and competed against or practiced with players who would go on to become some of the biggest names in the sport, including Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Hubert Hurkacz. He also shared the court with players such as Kei Nishikori and Marcos Baghdatis.

One of his most memorable experiences came at an ATP event in Tel Aviv, where he competed in front of a home crowd. At the 2022 Tel Aviv Open, his home tournament, he qualified for the main draw having received a wildcard.

He defeated seventh seed Lorenzo Giustino and third seed Luca Nardi. He recorded his first ATP career win defeating compatriot, wildcard Yshai Oliel.

As a result, he climbed close to 70 positions up the rankings to No. 377 and became the No. 1 Israeli player in singles. He also won his first Davis Cup match in South Africa in 2018, another moment that remains particularly meaningful to him.

Those experiences gave Leshem a firsthand look at both the rewards and the enormous challenges involved in trying to make it as a professional tennis player.

His career also gave him an intimate understanding of the difficulties facing Israeli tennis players.

Leshem believes the country has plenty of talent, but not always the infrastructure necessary to develop it.

“When I was competing, we had a lot of players,” he said. “Everybody just wanted to play and compete and everybody was fighting. I think that’s what creates a lot of players.”

Today, he believes there is less of that healthy competition.

Tennis has become more social, he said, while competitive tennis has become increasingly expensive and difficult. Travel, coaching, training and education can all create obstacles, particularly for young Israeli players trying to compete internationally.

Leshem experienced those challenges himself.

While some of the players he competed against eventually reached the highest levels of the sport, traveling with coaches, physiotherapists and larger support teams, Leshem often traveled alone. The cost and logistics of competing internationally were significantly more difficult for an Israeli player who had to fly between tournaments.

He remembers looking at players who had far greater resources and wondering whether he could reach the same level without the same support.

Those experiences have helped shape what he wants to do now.

After a fall down a staircase on the way to a match resulted in a lower-back fracture and a disc injury, Leshem eventually realized that a comeback was no longer realistic. Instead, he began building a new career around the sport.

He started slowly, developing his coaching experience and building his own tennis club in Ra’anana.

The goal, he says, was never simply to produce professional players.

“I wanted to build a community of people who love the sport and want to enjoy it,” he said. “It gave me so much joy.”
That philosophy makes the Sharsheret tournament particularly meaningful to him.

Tennis, Leshem believes, offers far more than competition. It provides exercise, social connection, resilience and independence. Unlike team sports, there is nowhere to hide on a tennis court.

“If you have a bad day, it’s all on you,” he said. “So you have to be very resilient and very independent.”

That same quality can make the sport a valuable escape for people dealing with difficult circumstances.

For someone recovering from illness or cancer, Leshem said, tennis can provide a temporary break from everything happening outside the court.

“You go, you play tennis, you focus on the strokes, on the movement, you kind of forget everything around,” he said.

“Sometimes it’s just a nice way to get away from all those troubles.”

The Sharsheret tournament also provides something beyond the tennis itself: an opportunity for women who have shared difficult experiences to come together in a positive environment.

Leshem said many of the participants already know one another and have similar stories, making the tournament an opportunity to reconnect, share experiences and simply enjoy a sport they love.

“I think it’s a very nice way to connect them with each other, to share stories,” he said. “They get the chance to meet all their friends at the same place with something that they all enjoy doing, which is playing tennis and talk.”

That idea is central to Sharsheret’s broader work. Cancer can be an isolating experience, even when surrounded by family and friends. Sharsheret’s peer-to-peer model allows people to connect with others who understand the experience firsthand, while its educational and genetic counseling programs help families navigate issues that extend beyond the immediate medical treatment.

In Israel, where the organization is still expanding its presence, that network is becoming increasingly important.

Tournament raises awareness and creates a supportive environment

The tournament therefore serves two purposes at once. It raises funds and awareness for Sharsheret, while also creating precisely the kind of community environment that the organization seeks to foster: one in which women can talk, support one another, remain active and see themselves as more than their diagnosis.

For Leshem, that sense of community is ultimately what makes the event special.

The former professional has spent years experiencing tennis from the perspective of a player trying to win. He has also experienced the pressures, sacrifices, and limitations that come with attempting to reach the highest levels of the sport.

Now, back on the same Ra’anana courts where his journey began, he gets to see tennis from another perspective.
He gets to help other people enjoy it.

And on Friday, he hopes plenty of people will come out to join them.

“The more people who come, the event will get better and support the cause,” Leshem said. “If anybody watching this wasn’t planning on coming and wants to come, we will be happy to have them with us on Friday.”

For a player whose childhood introduction to tennis began with a grandfather looking for a way to keep an energetic five-year-old busy, it is another chapter in a relationship with the sport that has lasted more than 20 years.
This time, however, the goal is not to win a match.

It is to help make sure everyone who steps onto the court has a reason to feel like a winner.

Sharsheret hosts community sports events in the US and now in Israel to raise funds and support national breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and genetics programs. The upcoming Sharsheret Israel Tennis Tournament Benefit is scheduled for this Friday, October 9, 2026, at the Ra’anana Tennis Center. For more information, please visit sharsheret.org/israel-tennis