Jakarta International ITF Tournament

 JAKARTA INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR ITF CHAMPIONSHIPS 

With matches starting early Tuesday morning, October 8th, I was notified by one of the tournament officials that the draw would be posted online at 7pm Monday night, just a few hours away I thought. 8pm, no draw. 9pm, no draw. 10pm? You guessed it, still no draw. Dimong was comfortable and content in his bed watching Dark Knight as I browsed and strained my eyes making sure I covered every inch of the website. At 11pm I had to make a call to the tournament director. After two unsuccessful tries I was like F this $h!+, I'm going to bed.

I had to get up early the next day so we could prepare properly for his match. I tried the tournament director at 6am  and he answered! Dimong's match time was at 9am. After a quick breakfast we were out of the hotel and headed towards Pusat Tenis Kemayoran for warm-up.

Matched up against Farras Berta of Indonesia, Dimong would prove too strong for the lanky lefty, beating him 6-0 6-1 in about 45 minutes. We'll do some scouting, sign up for doubles, and head out for the day. Get ready for Day 2!

Day II at the Jakarta International

A couple loose errors off the ground and a double fault spurs an early break for the 14th seed. A tough hold, but still a hold, puts Anshori up 2-0. More of the same in his service games and clutch serving by the 16yr old and Dimong yields the first set at love.

Serving first in the set, Dimong was able to hold after 3 deuces, earning him his first lead and game in the match. Easy hold by Anshori and the 2nd is tied at 1-1. In his next service game, double faults continue to haunt him resulting in a break. In the next game Dimong seemed to be finding a groove as they had long exchanges but he still was not able to execute enough for a break. Cutting down his errors allowed him to hold the next game putting him at 2-3 in the 2nd. Loose errors and good depth from Demon proved too much pressure, especially when targeting the backhand -- Dimong breaks for 3 all. With solid serving he holds comfortably to make it 4-3, on serve. Being a little over-aggressive loses him the next game but wins him his serve making it 5-4. Anshori fights for a tough hold. dimong goes down early in his service game and isn't able to recover, now allowing Anahori a chance to serve for the match. Not making his opponent earn his points enough, the set over and match finish at 6-0, 7-5 in favor of the Indonesian. The day was not quite over with doubles left in the afternoon.

Partnering with Stefan Vujic from Australia, their slow start, going down 1-5, would not discourage them as they fought their way back to a first set win at 7-5! The first-time duo would keep that momentum, rolling their way to a straight set victory over a pair of young Indonesian players, 7-5, 6-1!

The next day the duo would lose a close 4 and 4 match. An untimely break by their Indonesian opponents cost them the first, and almost identically in the 2nd, just one break a set proved enough for the Indonesian team. Dimong continues play in Surabaya next week, thanks for following!