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fter a training session at the Westin hotel’s tennis courts on Wednesday, Tami Grende stops at a refrigerator next to the courtside changing room. On its fogged-up glass, she quickly writes her signature, finishing it with a squiggly flourish.

That is the 13-year-old coming out in her — “I thought it was fun to do it,” she says — which also shows in her sometimes averted gaze in conversations and quietness.

But she, as well as her father and coach Olivier, have very grand ambitions for her future.

“I would like to win a grand slam one day,” she says. “I would most like it to be Wimbledon women’s singles because the tournament is so old and has so much history. I want to be the first Indonesian to do that.”

“It’s every tennis player’s dream to step on the grass of Wimbledon just one time in their career,” says Olivier Grende.

Tami has already chalked up impressive results. She was nationally ranked number one in the under-10 junior girls, and at the age of 9 triumphed in an international under-12 tournament in Singapore. At the time, she was known as a talented baseliner who was small for her age.

But she has shot up to 1.73 meters after a growth spurt. In January, still only 12 years old, she won the under-16 title at the New Armada event in Magelang, Central Java, beating several nationally ranked players. She already has an International Tennis Federation junior ranking, and is looking to improve it by playing more events.

“I can beat almost all the under 16 players I coach, including the boys, with my spins and strategies, but I can’t do it anymore with Tami,” says Nunung Sinuraya, who assists in coaching Tami.

“She has a great inside-out play, and she also has an outstanding fighting spirit.”

Tami’s dreams are shared by her father, and also her Balinese mother, who Olivier Grende calls the real tennis fanatic in the family.

“She will stay up until late watching matches, she likes men’s more than women’s, and then in the morning she is up early to play.”

Born of an Italian father and Belgian mother in the latter’s homeland, Olivier Grende has lived all over the world, including a stint in the Italian military (“It was easier, they had red and white wine.”) Working as a diving instructor in Pattaya, he came to Bali 15 years ago to discuss a project with a client. That fell through, but during the trip he found a wife.

Olivier Grende speaks ebulliently about his hopes for his daughter, who started playing at the age of 5 after watching a tennis match on TV. He channels that passion into training Tami and is a stern taskmaster on court, shouting to her to move her feet, turn, watch the ball, telling her that she can SMS him when she is ready to hit the cone on
the baseline.

Tami remains poker-faced during the drill, hitting the ball harder and closer to the cone, gradually placating her father.

There is always the danger that parental passion will veer into an all-consuming obsession. Tennis has its own notorious rogue’s gallery of abusive fathers, including those of Jelena Dokic, Mirjana Lucic and Mary Pierce.

Grende acknowledges the difficulties in juggling the two roles of father — “Dads are supposed to be nice” — and a coach laying down the law.
However, he says he tries to strike the delicate balance; his daughter trains five days a week, and Sunday is family day, when everybody turns off their cell phones and enjoys activities together.

“There was one week when she said she didn’t want to train, so she didn’t,” says Grende, who also has two younger children who play tennis for fun.

“It can be awkward sometimes, but it’s good, too, because you have a connection, and nobody else knows you like your own father,” Tami says.

Tennis is an expensive sport, including in the junior ranks. Tami is fortunate to already have equipment sponsorships, and she currently trains in Thailand sponsored by Big and Better Tennis, run by distinguished coach Paul Dale.

She also was selected to star in a reality show, Tennis Ace, which will air in 2011 on Star Sports. It will focus on her family’s efforts to fund her career.

Grende says he made money during the Asian crisis on financial speculation and real estate that have helped him support his daughter. He is still looking for an airline to provide sponsorship for her travel, one of the biggest expenses of a tennis career, but has yet to hear a response from the national airline.

“We’re not asking to take seats away from passengers, but if there are empty seats, that would be a great help,” he says.

Curiously, most of Tami’s success has not garnered attention from the national tennis association Pelti, and there are mistakes in her results on its website.

Grende does not consider it discrimination against his daughter because of her parentage, just that connections still matter so much in the Indonesian tennis world. Observers allege that club and coaching affiliations still make a big difference in whether a player gets recognition from the national body, regardless of their talent.

Father and daughter both say they dearly hope that Tami can represent Indonesia one day. “I would like to make Indonesia proud,” she says.

Next year, when Tami is 14, Olivier Grende plans to ask his daughter whether she wants to commit to playing tennis at least for the next 10 years. It will be up to her, he says.

Asked separately, Tami says, in her quiet but firm way, “I will continue, yes.”

But she is still a youngster, albeit a very talented one with a racket in her hand. Coach Sinuraya Widyotomo tells of a tournament where he promised to buy her a candy bar if she would hit an inside — our winner during the match.

She waited until matchpoint, closing out the match with the shot. She got her candy in the end.