By JARROD POTTER
FROM Endeavour Hills’ tennis courts all the way to the US Open, the rapid rise of 17-year-old tennis star Omar Jasika has culminated this week with a rare twin tournament triumph.
Jasika, formerly from Endeavour Hills, excelled in the US Open’s Boys Singles and Doubles tournaments to win both finals matches on back-to-back playing days.
Jasika backed up his doubles victory with Japanese partner Naoki Nakagawa 6-3 7-6 (6) over Brazillian pair Joao Menezes and Rafael Matos by claiming the coveting Boys Singles title, knocking over France’s Quentin Jalys 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Despite a sore shoulder troubling Jasika throughout the competition, the left-hand dynamo powered through his opposition to claim the uncommon feat – the first time in 28 years a player has won both boy’s singles and doubles since Spain’s Javier Sanchez in 1986.
“I’m pretty happy with it,” Jasika said. “It still hasn’t kicked in but it’s pretty amazing.”
“Every day the matches were getting tougher and tougher and I was trying to not to think about that and just focus on the match point-by-point and see how far I could go and it got me pretty far.”
The power-punch combination of his left-hand serve and a strong forehand left the competition reeling to keep up with the 17-year-old prodigy and as he defeated Jalys on Court 17 to take his place as a US Open champion.
“Night before I played on that court – for doubles – and that helped a lot. I just tried to go point-by-point, game-by-game and stay in the match,” Jasika said. “It was kind of like a shock – it just went through my head but after a while I was starting to feel pretty amazing.”
The feat cements him as another of Australia’s rising star prospects for the future alongside wunderkinds Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis.
“It’s always good I guess to have more up-and-coming Australians and it’s a pretty big honour,” Jasika said. “A few more people know my name now so I’m pretty happy for that and hoepfuly I can get some more results in the future.”
Jasika’s coach Liam Smith believes hard work paved the way to his stunning achievement and speaks highly of his charge’s stamina and focus.
“It speaks more than anything to the physical and mental level that he produced to be able to play two matches a day – back to back every day,” Smith said. “It’s quite a lot in the heat and the humidity and there were late night finishes and coming back the next day for singles – so I consider it to be a phenomenal effort more than anything else and definitely a little bit of reward for the hard work he has put in.”
Jasika now sets his gaze on the upcoming Australian Pro Tour events in Cairns and Alice Springs.
