Meet Indonesia’s Men’s Masters Who Achieved a Unique Triple Crown at the Recent UNJ Indonesia Pickleball Open in Jakarta

The recent UNJ Indonesia Open Pickleball Tournament in Jakarta had a lot going on, but one particular pair caught our eye.

On day one of the tournament, two men started an impressive journey which had them dominating every category in the men’s over-50 elite division.

Pak Edy and Pak I Gusti dominated their way through to the men’s singles final, losing very few points along the way, to battle it out between them, with Edy coming out on top, 21 to 15 in the final.

Not content with taking gold and silver in the singles, the two decided to dominate every available over-50s category, ending up with a unique triple crown of gold/silver in men’s singles over 50, gold/silver in mixed doubles over 50, and, to top it off, joined forces to take gold together in the men’s doubles over 50.

The two move and play like men half their age, and we wanted to know the secret of their success, so we quickly caught up with them to find out about their pickleball journey so far.

When did you start playing pickleball?

We both started playing pickleball in August 2021.

Did you play any other racquet sports before pickleball?

Yes, we previously played tennis.

What city do you live in, and how popular is pickleball there?

We live in Klungkung City, Bali – Indonesia, and yes, pickleball is starting to mushroom over here.  It is already loved and played by many people in the cities of Klungkung and Bali.

We are already seeing a lot of pickleball courts spread across Klungkung. One of the reasons for this is that we can see an opportunity for sport tourism as there is no better place to come for a break and pickleball at the same time.

How and why did you start pickleball?

We were introduced to the game of pickleball by friends from the Bali IPF Pengprov administrators who were interested in spreading the word about pickleball and introducing new sports into Indonesia.  Edy and I started practicing and playing pickleball and found our background in tennis was helpful to pick it up.

After getting to know the game of pickleball much better, we both felt it was a very interesting game. We also felt is suitable for older people, so seeing a long term future in the sport we decided to take pickleball practice more seriously.

You both play more like you’re 30 years old instead of 50 years old. How often do you play and do you do any special training?

When we first got to know the game of pickleball, we played almost every day for 3 – 4 hours.

Currently, we play 4 times a week for 4 hours each day. We try to exercise regularly to maintain body fitness. Our main tip to get good and improve when practicing is to spend more time doing dinks, volley and drive drills. It’s important to spend time on these drill rather than just focus on gameplay.

You recently achieved a joint triple crown at the Jakarta Open ranking 1st and 2nd in men’s doubles over 50s, mixed doubles and men’s singles. What do you hope to achieve next?

We do have a target for the 50+ category. Our aim is to become top-level players in Indonesia, and then move on to become top-rated masters in Asia.

However, we know that to be able to realise these aims is going to be tough. Not only do we need physical fitness and to continue to improve our playing technique, but we also need financial support (sponsorship) to be able to take part in more events, especially events outside Indonesia. Unfortunately, until now it’s proving difficult to find sponsors looking to support players for the senior categories (e.g over 50).  [editors comment – pickleball brands take note!]

Pak Edy and Pak I Gusti’s next stop will be Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the Skechers KL International. We wish them good luck for that tournament, or judging by their performance in Jakarta, perhaps it will be their opponents who will need the luck!