Fajarasia.co – Mixed doubles tennis pair Christopher Rungkat and Aldila Sutjiadi revealed the secret of the two of them remaining compact in presenting the gold medal in recent years.
Christo and Aldila have been paired since the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games where they both won gold.
The following year, the Christo/Aldila duo also won a gold medal in the Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines, and defended it at the 31st SEA Games in Vietnam, Friday night.
“Indeed, our performance from the Asian Games has been good. Dila also individually in the doubles are also good and I am also still active on the tour. That is a formula that has made us consistent with the results so far,” said Christo.
Aldila, along with Australian tennis player Astra Sharma, won the Copa Colsanitas double title in Bogota, Colombia, last month, which was her first WTA title.
After winning the WTA 250 level, the 26-year-old tennis player earlier this month re-packaged the double title of the ITF World Tennis Tour W100 tournament in Charleston, United States.
Just like Aldila, this year Christo is also actively pursuing his world ranking. Both started the year by participating in the 2022 Australian Open.
Despite not being able to go fast in the Grand Slam tournament, Christo, who was paired with a Filipino player, managed to get past the first round after defeating Edouard Roger-Vasselin (France)/Rohan Bopanna (India) at Melbourne Park.
Meanwhile, Aldila’s steps at the Australian Open with Peangtarn Plipuech (Thailand) had to stop in the first round.
Successfully repeating his victory at the SEA Games Vietnam, Christo did not think about hanging up his racket, and hoped to continue to gain gold.
“Hopefully we can continue for the next four to five years. Hopefully more than that,” said the 32-year-old tennis player.
Meanwhile, realizing that his partner is no longer young, Aldila thanks Christo for appearing with his best performance.
“I thank my partner who I know his body is not young anymore but he can cover me and all out in every match we play,” said Aldila.
“This gold is for Indonesia, for my family who have supported coming here. My family who supported me from America, which of course I am very happy to be able to present the first gold from the tennis branch, it is not easy to defend the gold, but we managed to play well and all out during the game,” he added.
The Christo/Aldila gold added to the medals that had been donated by tennis at the Vietnam SEA Games, namely silver and bronze, from the men’s team and women’s team numbers respectively.****
