Website, ini untuk tanggal 16 May, halaman 21
Website, ini untuk tanggal 16 May, halaman 21
Dea gets a shot in the arm in U.S. collegiate career
Bruce Emond
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
National tennis' loss was the University of Washington's gain
when Dea Sumantri accepted a full scholarship to its tennis
program three years ago.
Currently the 18th ranked women's singles player in the
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the Bandung-born
player has been ranked as high as fifth and was twice an All-
American in singles.
Along with head coach Patty Fendick McCain, she is credited
with helping make Washington's Huskies one of the leading teams
in women's collegiate tennis.
First contacted by McCain in 2000 when she was a top junior
player competing with Angelique "Angie" Widjaja, Dea passed on
the offer.
"Angie and Dea were the two most promising juniors, and I
think Angie improved because of the competition," said former top
20 player Yayuk Basuki, whose husband Suharyadi coached Dea and
recommended her to McCain, a friend from the women's tour.
"If Angie was a bit more talented (physically), Dea was smart
at playing the game."
McCain tried her luck again two years later.
This time, tired of the grind of early morning practice
sessions, long distance travel on the satellite tournament
circuit and laid low by injury, Dea was ready to try something
different.
"I didn't really like that type of life (as a touring pro),
it's not easy at all, traveling by yourself or even with a
coach," Dea said by phone from Seattle last Thursday. "That's
especially so when the teenage phase, puberty, is tough."
Like Angie, also from Bandung and a frequent doubles partner
in her junior days, Dea was the youngest in her family, with
three older brothers. Her parents were initially reticent to let
her go to the U.S.
"My dad asked me if it was worth it to give it all up to go to
the States, and I said, 'how would I know if I don't try?' My
parents have been very supportive."
After her lonely teen years when tennis was her all-consuming
focus, she has thrived on the Seattle campus -- she calls it her
"one-stop for happiness -- from the enjoyment of competing on a
team to making friends.
"It was the best thing that ever happened to me," said Dea,
now a 22-year-old senior business major in marketing and sales
with a 3.5 GPA.
As her results attest, striking the right balance has also
been good for her game.
"I've become more developed in my personality and character.
I've started to realize that I play so much better when I feel
motivated from the inside."
McCain, herself a successful player for Stanford in the 1980s,
has also been an inspiration. Dea speaks in superlatives about
her coach.
"She does a terrific job in molding someone into a better
tennis player, helping them imagine that they can go that far.
She's so amazing, intelligent, a really smart woman."
McCain, known for believing that the game of tennis can be
broken down into a geometric equation, is equally liberal in her
praise for her player.
"Dea has helped raise this program to a completely new level,"
she told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in April.
"The standard she has set with her work ethic and her passion
for the game ... not only is she an exciting player to watch
because she's a shot maker, but she just brings droves of people
out because she makes everyone feel part of the experience.
"She makes them feel like they're going through it shot for
shot with her. She plays with humility and is thankful for them."
Dea, who will graduate in December, will say goodbye to
collegiate tennis in June when her eligibility ends.
She said she missed Indonesia -- "my family, friends, the
food, and it's so cheap" -- but will remain in the U.S. after
graduating to work.
Studying abroad has also opened her eyes to inequality.
"In the U.S., it's mostly racial, but in Indonesia it's that
dangerous mind, patriarchal way of thinking."
Differences in prize money between the sexes is galling to
her.
"We eat the same amount of food, we spend the same amount of
days on the court to the reach the final, but the money is
different."
Despite her successful college career, Dea doubts she will
follow the path of Lisa Raymond, Laura Granville or Fendick
McCain in trying out the pro tour once again.
"I am ready to take the next step in life, try a new challenge
but I don't see myself playing the pro tour," she said, adding
that she respected Angie and Wynne Prakusya for sticking with the
tour.
"If you don't have to wake up at 5 a.m. every morning, if you
can find happiness in so many other forms, then why would you?"