WHEN you have confidence in your own game, you just need to keep the ball rolling.
It’s been an outstanding six months on the tennis pro tour for Melbournian Omar Jasika, and the number one seed added another ITF trophy to the cabinet at the Mildura International on Sunday.
The 27-year-old top seed went head-to-head with emerging star Pavle Marinkov, who had been on a hot streak defeating seeded opponents all tournament, and pulled out all the stops to win 6-3, 6-4.
The 19-year-old from Sydney saved a match point and almost looked poised to take the second set to a tie break before Jasika ground out the victory.
The world number 233 has been in great form on the ITF circuit, which included winning an incredible five consecutive tournaments with back to back wins in Bali at M15 and M25 events respectively, followed by tournament wins at the Darwin International, NT International and Cairns International across September and October.
Last month Jasika lost in the final of the Burnie International to veteran Jason Kubler.
“It’s been a good week for me, I haven’t actually played a grass court tournament in a while so it was good to come out here and get my grass skills up,” Jasika said.
“Pavle played an amazing match and things could have gone differently for me today, but super excited to get the win and end the week well.
“I definitely think he’s going to be a good player. Once you get all of your weapons intact and you figure out where to use them and when to use them, I think he can be a really good player going forward.
“I think I had a really good end to last year which gave me a lot of confidence, when the ball is rolling your way you just have to keep it rolling.
“I’m playing some good tennis and mentally I’m the strongest I’ve ever been in my tennis career, and just doing the small things right.”
The win should be enough to boost Jasika’s ranking to enter the qualifying stages for the upcoming French Open and Wimbledon Grand Slams.
Jasika said Mildura holds a special place in his heart.
“I’ve been here for many years now and the grass has always been amazing,” he said.
“I’ve been here since I was 12 and the courts get better and better.
“Stoked to have played here again and hopefully I can be back next year.”
Jaskia was forced to dig deep in his semi-final on Saturday against seventh seed Dane Sweeny, however the Melbournian stuck it out to win 7-6, 6-4 in nearly two-and-a-half hours.
The eventual champions had flown out to a 4-0 lead in the opening set before the Queenslander dug deep, saving three set points to force it to a tie-breaker.
The number one seed again twice missed converting set points, however he finally broke through 9-7.
Jasika again had a strong start with a 3-1 lead, but this time it’s one he wouldn’t surrender as he went on to claim the match.
An entertaining first set in Saturday’s semi-final between Marinkov and second seed Blake Ellis looked like it was an indicator for how the match would play out, however after 49 minutes, Ellis was forced to retire from the match.
To that points almost all stats were even despite Marinkov holding a 5-3 lead.
The young gun is certainly a player to watch in the future.
The ITF tour heads to Swan Hill this week.
