TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Aldila wants Grand Slam dream to come true next year
In spite of limited funding, Indonesian tennis player Aldila Sutjiadi is holding on to her dream of competing at the Grand Slam level as she sets sights on the biggest tournaments next year
Change Size
I
span>In spite of limited funding, Indonesian tennis player Aldila Sutjiadi is holding on to her dream of competing at the Grand Slam level as she sets sights on the biggest tournaments next year.
Aldila is the country’s women’s singles player with the highest ranking at 356th of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). She reached her career-highest rank of 347th in November, almost a decade after turning pro in 2010.
The 24-year-old expressed her desire to compete at Grand Slam tournaments — the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open — after winning gold at the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in the women’ singles event on Friday.
“Next year, I want to be able to penetrate the top 200 and play at the Grand Slams. [It seems] that the closest Grand Slam I could play at is Roland Garros [the French Open] or Wimbledon,” she said.
Throughout the 2019 season, Aldila has been fighting to increase her singles and doubles ranking by competing at numerous tournaments.
Her hard work and persistence have started to show results as she climbed up the world’s singles ranking to the 400s from her previous ranking at 664. Her doubles ranking is 168th.
Of all 23 tournaments she joined this year, Aldila managed to qualify in two WTA tournaments, namely the Jiangxi Open in September, where she reached the final match of the qualification round, as well as November’s Taipei 125K, where she reached the main round.
Unfortunately, her endeavor in Taipei was stopped by second-seed Timea Babos of Hungary after they battled it out in three sets.
By joining international tournaments, Aldila has honed her skills, allowing her to put on her best performance for Philippines Games gold.
“The mentality built from competing [at international events] is different from that resulting only from practicing. The more tournaments we join, the more prepared we are mentally for facing critical points,” she said.
Aldila clearly displayed maturity in dealing with pressure during the 2019 Games final as her opponent, Savanna Ly Nguyen from Vietnam, upped the tempo in the second set. Luckily, the Indonesian managed to wrap up the match with 6-0 and 7-5.
Aldila still has one chance to add to her medal collection in the Philippines as she is to play with Christopher Rungkat in the mixed doubles final on Saturday against Thai veterans Tamarine Tanasugarn and Sanchai Ratiwatana.
Last year, Aldila and Christopher attained stardom after bringing to an end Indonesian tennis medal drought at the 2018 Asian Games, winning the gold medal in front of the home crowd in Palembang, South Sumatra.
In her mission to make her Grand Slam dream come true, funding is still the biggest challenge for Aldila, as also for other national tennis players, because the Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti) has no dedicated budget for players.
The Pelti relies only on grants from the Youth and Sports Ministry, which allocates training funds for all sport federations at the beginning of every year ahead of a multisport event, including the SEA Games.
At the moment, Aldila relies on her own funds to cover her needs, plus help from the National Sports Council's (KONI) East Java branch. Aldila receives the support as she will compete for East Java in the 2020 National Games (PON).
East Java KONI director M. Nabil said the committee allocated around Rp 1 billion (US$71,240) per year to support a tennis player. Nabil said the financial support included a monthly allowance for the player in the run-up to preparations for the SEA Games.
