Lita looks at life from both sides now
Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
When memory fails her about her days on the international tennis circuit, Lita Liem Sugiarto finds the answers she needs in two small notebooks.
Within their covers, in tiny, precise handwriting, are listed all of the tournaments she played in, her win-loss record and the prize money she took home.
Some names -- Billie Jean King, Margaret Court, Virginia Wade -- are familiar to tennis fans. But there is one result in particular that stands out.
On March 25, 1973, at the now long-forgotten Ladies Gotham Classic in New York City, Lita came back from a set down to beat a young Czech player who was struggling to keep her adolescent temper under control. The final set was a resounding 6-1.
"Oh, how she cried after the match," Lita said of the 17-year- old Martina Navratilova.
Lita is a confirmed fan of her former foe; in her home in Kelapa Gading, East Jakarta, among all the memorabilia she collected from her career, there is a signed framed portrait of Navratilova.
"She is the player I enjoy watching the most," said Lita, who, along with longtime doubles partner Lany Kaligis, played Navratilova during the latter's somewhat premature "farewell tour" stop in Jakarta in 1994.
"She plays so aggressively, coming to the net all the time."
Lita, who turns 59 on Feb. 27, never quite reached the top of the game, but she had a highly respectable career. A pioneer of Indonesian women's tennis, she reached the last 16 of both the Australian Open in 1970, when it was still played on grass, and the French Open in 1974.
She was also the 1970 runner's up in the Ladies Plate -- Wimbledon's consolation prize for players who lost in the first three rounds -- to a young, free-hitting Evonne Goolagong.
With Lany, she made the Wimbledon women's doubles quarterfinals in 1973, losing to eventual winners Rosie Casals and King.
Her greatest tennis moment came when she won the women's singles at the Asian Games in Tehran in 1974. It would be another 24 years before compatriot Yayuk Basuki repeated the feat.
"It was so memorable for me, seeing the red and white flag being raised," she said, her voice catching with emotion.
Although not a marquee name, Lita was a crowd puller all the same for her unique game: She hit forehands off both flanks.
Ambidextrous players are a curiosity in tennis. American Beverly Baker Fleitz reached the 1955 Wimbledon women's singles final; Lita beat Dutchwoman Marijke Schaar in a battle of forehands at Wimbledon in 1972.
The only exponent today is Russian Evgenia Koulikovskaya.
Famous tennis fashion designer Teddy Tinling gave Lita use of his creations, an honor usually reserved for the top women.
"He told me, 'Lita, people come to watch you because you're different'."
Born of a Chinese-Manado doctor father and Dutch mother, she started playing on the court across from her home in Pangkal Pinang, South Sumatra. She also excelled at volleyball, and at age 17, she was called up to train in Jakarta for GANEFO (the Games of the New Emerging Forces), Sukarno's alternative to the Olympics.
Her potential was spotted at a junior tennis event in Bandung, and Lita was asked to try out for coach Hans Sangitan.
"I hit three strokes, and he said, 'You have to forget about school, I'll train you every day and make you a champion in two years' time'."
Her parents agreed to the proposal, and her mother moved to Jakarta to be with her. Lita wanted to be a doctor, but her coach told her: "'There are thousands of doctors, but there's only one tennis champion.' He said through tennis you can earn a living, you can coach or become a professional."
Hans had been a champion, but he learned to play with his left arm after injuring his right. He tested Lita, a natural left hander, to see if she, like his son, Samudera Sangitan, could play with her right hand as well. She passed.
Lita went through what she terms "military-style training", lifting weights to build up her right arm strength and playing with a special order 20-ounce racket -- the heaviest of all.
When she emerged after two years of training to play events, she promptly won a junior title, and 40 days later the national women's crown.
In 1966, she became the first Indonesian woman to be sent to play tournaments in Europe. Three years later, she qualified with Lany for Wimbledon.
"We jumped up and down to be playing at Wimbledon ... it was so traditional and well-organized."
Tennis was an amateur sport until 1968, and Lita was on hand when tennis magazine publisher Gladys Heldman and King set up their own women's tour with Virginia Slims in 1970.
Lita remembers the camaraderie among the players as they crisscrossed the United States and Europe. "There were players who were always alone, but those of us who always got together, like the Japanese and those from Argentina."
She has special affection for King, who would shout out a greeting of "tai (sh--)" to Indonesian players after hearing it exclaimed in a doubles match. She also told Lita she wanted to learn her trademark crosscourt dink.
The only player she has no love lost for is Wade -- "so stuck up, she wouldn't even look at you when she passed by".
She made a good living from the tour, ranking 17th on the money list in 1973, a year after her marriage to fellow player Sugiarto.
By 1974, however, she had tired of living out of a suitcase for eight months of the year. "Christmas was the worst -- you had to stay in your hotel room, and the next day was Boxing Day and everything was closed."
She returned to Jakarta, had a daughter, Bianca, (a former junior champion, she has pursued an academic career) and set up a tennis school.
Lita, who continues to teach, is grateful for all the sport has given her.
"I got to see the world, had many experiences and met all the top players. I had to take care of everything for my career. From a hobby, tennis became a way for me to make a living -- at the very least, I got to help my husband."