Former national player Feby Widhiyanto, who took the role of non-playing captain in the Davis Cup, revealed that the biggest hurdle in the development of Indonesian tennis is a lack of domestic tournaments.

This year, the Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti) has scheduled 21 national tournaments and seven internationals for the junior level. In the senior category, the association has listed at least five national tournaments.

However, in the men’s division, Indonesia only has the Combiphar Tennis Open as the sole regular international competition. The Open, of which the 2019 edition was held in three series last month, is part of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) men’s world tour and categorized as level M15. Each series has a total of US$15,000 in prize money.

Having more national and international tournaments in the country means there are more chances for the sports federation to build and shape athletes. At the highest level of such a development program, successful athletes are expected to nurture their juniors to keep the sport alive.

National player Anthony Susanto said having more international tournaments in the country could help players collect points to participate in events abroad.

“International tournaments that are held in the country give us access to getting wild cards or saving us a spot as qualifiers — that really helps. The tournament also makes us familiar with the atmosphere of international competition,” he said.

In this generation, Indonesia only has Christopher Rungkat as a role model. Christopher, with a 2018 Asian Games mixed doubles gold medal among his achievements, is pretty much alone at the top as the gap from him to his possible successor is still too wide.

Due to his hectic schedule as a professional athlete, Christopher could not make it into the weekend’s round and his absence from Gelora Bung Karno’s outdoor tennis stadium hit the red-and-white squad quite hard.

Feby, who played actively in the early 2000s, acknowledged the big gap between senior players and juniors that the current generation is facing.

“In my era, the gap was not big. We had enough options [to set up a Davis Cup team] as all players were on the same level — they only differed in rankings.

“At that time, we were also supported by [a good number of] national and international tournaments in the country. We even had players that specialized in certain categories.

“Now, we can only rely on all-court players,” said the 39-year-old.

Saturday and Sunday’s Davis Cup battles applied a best-of-five competition.

Playing in front of home crowd, David Agung Susanto and his teammates could not do much while playing against the Kiwi team, which was powered by one of its strongest players, Michael Venus, who ranks 10th in the Association of Tennis Professional (ATP) doubles ranking.

The only win on the home side was made by teen Ari Fahresi, who defeated Ajeet Rai 6-3, 2-6, 10-7.

The remaining three matches were a total demolition of the host team. David, the senior in the squad, lost 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 in a singles match to Rhett Purcell, despite having the advantage of leading 4-1 in the second set. M. Rifki Fitriadi lost 7-6 (9/7), 6-3 to Rai, while siblings David and Anthony Susanto in doubles lost 6-0, 6-2 to Venus and Marcus Daniell.

“In David’s match, it was supposed to be easy for him to win the match, but instead, his opponent turned the situation around and took an advantage for his team,” he said. “Now, the gap between Christo and his junior is quite big. David is not ready yet to take the leader role in the team because his performance was still stagnant.”

Christopher’s significant role as a leader is seen in the country’s Davis Cup records over the past three years. The 29-year-old, world number 69 in the ATP doubles ranking, had helped the Indonesian team stay afloat at the Group II Asia-Oceania.

In 2017, Indonesia lost 4-1 to Philippines in the first round phase — Christopher was absent at that time. In the playoff round, Christopher made it to the team and helped the country win 4-1 against Kuwait.

A year later, Indonesia repeated history. Christopher again helped the team survive in the playoffs by beating Sri Lanka 3-1. Indonesia had to go through to the playoffs because of a 4-1 loss against the Philippines in the first round, from which Christopher was absent, too.

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