Christopher Benjamin Rungkat (born 14 January 1990) is an Indonesian

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. In 2008, he won the final stage of

French Open 2008 The 2008 French Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 112th edition of the French Open, and the second Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from 25 May until 8 ...

Boys' Doubles Juniors category with

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

tennis player

Henri Kontinen Henri Kontinen (; born 19 June 1990) is an inactive Finnish professional tennis player who is a former List of ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles. After being forced to end his singles career at a young age due to ...

.(11 June 2008
French Open glory for Indonesian junior player
''

Jakarta Globe The ''Jakarta Globe'' is a daily online English-language newspaper in Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17, ...

'', Retrieved 6 November 2010 He is the youngest ever Indonesian to be the All Indonesian Champion, and by the end of his junior career, he was awarded for Indonesian best promising athlete 2008. Rungkat also reached the final of the 2008 US Open boys' final with

. Rungkat is the first Indonesian to reach US open boys' finalist and to win the doubles title of

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

. In June 2010, he won the

Tarakan Tarakan is an island and the largest city of the Indonesian province of North Kalimantan. The island city is located in northern Borneo, midway along the coast of the province. The city boundaries are co-extensive with the island (including a co ...

Open International Men's Futures tournament, his first international tournament title since going pro.(13 June 2010
Christopher Brings Home Tarakan Title
, ''

'', Retrieved 6 November 2010 He won his maiden ATP title in Men's Doubles partnered with Swedish player

André Göransson André Göransson (born 30 April 1994) is a Swedish tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 773, achieved on 25 September 2017, and in doubles a ranking of world No. 62, achieved on 17 January 2022. So he is the curr ...

in February 2020, 13 years since going pro.

Personal life

He is the grandson of Benny Rungkat, former chairman of the Indonesian Air Carriers Association. Christopher's father, Michael Alexander Fritz Rungkat, is of Dutch and Indonesian descent and his mother, Elfia Mirlianti, is full Indonesian descent. Christopher Rungkat partnered up with PocariID in 2007 for a project called Pocari Sweat Sport Science hoping to help Christopher maximize his performance.

Career

Christopher Rungkat spent his junior career in Europe by playing on the European Junior Circuit and was based in Tennis Val (Valencia, Spain). He is the second Asian male player to win a junior French Open doubles title, after

Kei Nishikori is an inactive Japanese professional tennis player. He is the second male Japanese player to have been ranked in the top 5 in singles (after Jiro Sato), and the only one to do so in the Open Era. Nishikori first reached his career-high singles ...

. He was the winner of the Men's Singles title at the

2017 Southeast Asian Games Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18 * one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017 Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine * ''Seventeen'' (Japanes ...

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

. A year later at the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( id, Pesta Olahraga Asia 2018 or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, was a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 A ...

in his home country, Rungkat was partnered up with Aldila Sutjiadi for the

Mixed Doubles Mixed doubles or mixed pairs is a form of mixed-sex sports that consists of teams of one man and one woman. This variation of competition is prominent in curling and racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis and badminton (where it is known as ...

category in just two weeks, and was not targeted to grab any medals. However, they surprised with getting the gold medal after producing a couple of upsets and eventually beating Thai pair

Sonchat Ratiwatana Sonchat Ratiwatana ( th, สนฉัตร รติวัฒน์, ), nicknamed Ton (, ; born January 23, 1982 in Bangkok) is a professional tennis player from Thailand. In 2007, Sonchat and his twin brother Sanchai Ratiwatana won their first ...

and

Luksika Kumkhum Luksika "Luk" Kumkhum ( th, ลักษิกา คำขำ; ; born 21 July 1993) is a Thai tennis player. She turned professional in 2011, and reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 66 on 19 November 2018. On 16 July 2018, she ...

in the end to get the gold medal. He started 2019 with a title i
Da Nang Vietnam Airlines Tennis Open
with partner

Cheng-Peng Hsieh Hsieh Cheng-peng (; born 22 September 1991) is an inactive tennis player from Taiwan. Alongside Yang Tsung-hua he won the 2008 Wimbledon Championships – Boys' doubles title. He won the 2009 US Open – Boys' doubles with Márton Fucso ...

beating former world number 1 in the doubles semi-final

Leander Paes Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players ever. He holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup. Paes won eight men' ...

and partner

Divij Sharan Divij Sharan (born 2 March 1986) is an Indian professional tennis player. He specialises in doubles and competes on the ATP World Tour. He has won 5 ATP World Tour titles in men's doubles and represents India in the Davis Cup. He won a gold me ...

. In February, Rungkat reached his first doubles final

ATP Tour 250 The ATP 250 tournaments (previously known as the ''ATP World Tour 250'' tournaments, ''ATP International Series'', and ''ATP World Series'') are the lowest tier of annual men's tennis tournaments on the main ATP Tour, after the four Grand Slam tou ...

at The Sofia Open with partner

. After 13 years on the ATP Tour, Rungkat won his maiden ATP title at the 250 event 2020 Maharashtra Open in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in the Men's Doubles section. Partnered with

, Rungkat defeated fourth seed and his former partner

who competed with

Denys Molchanov Denys Petrovych Molchanov ( uk, Денис Петрович Молчанов; born 16 May 1987) is a Ukrainian tennis player playing on the ATP Challenger Tour winning 15 singles and 62 doubles titles. He has also won one ATP doubles title. On 5 ...

3–6, 6–4, 0–8in the first round to advance to the quarterfinal. They then surprised the French team of

Benoît Paire Benoît Paire (; born 8 May 1989) is a French professional tennis player. His best result in a Grand Slam has been reaching the fourth round, which he has achieved on four occasions. He has won three singles titles, at the 2015 Swedish Open, t ...

and

Antoine Hoang Antoine Hoang (born 4 November 1995) is a French tennis player. He has a career high ATP singles ranking of World No. 98 achieved on 19 August 2019. He also has a career high ATP doubles ranking of No. 132 achieved on 18 October 2021. Professio ...

in straight sets 6–3, 6–3 before securing a spot in the final with a win over

Romain Arneodo Romain Arneodo (born 4 August 1992) is a French-born Monegasque professional tennis player who specializes in doubles.(in FrenchRomain Arneodo pourra représenter Monaco en Coupe Davis sur ''codesport.fr'', 30 septembre 2013 From 2008 to 2013, A ...

and

Andre Begemann Andre Begemann (born 12 July 1984) is a German inactive professional tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player ...

6–4, 7–6^(7–1). In the final, the pairing defeated third seed

Jonathan Erlich Jonathan Dario "Yoni" Erlich ( he, יונתן דאריו "יוני" ארליך, born 5 April 1977) is an Israeli former professional tennis player. During his career, he was mainly a doubles specialist, having won the men's doubles title at the ...

and Andrei Vasilevski 6–2, 3–6, 0–8

Awards and nominations

ATP career finals

Doubles: 1 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Challenger and Futures finals

Singles: 17 (11 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Doubles: 79 (47 titles, 32 runner-ups)

Junior Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

ITF Junior finals

Singles: 5 (4 titles, 1 runner-up)

Doubles: 22 (13 titles, 9 runner-ups)

National representation

Multi-sports event

Rungkat made his debut representing Indonesia in multi-sports event at the

2007 Southeast Asian Games The 2007 Southeast Asian Games ( th, กีฬาแห่งเอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้ 2007, Kila haeng echiye tawan oak chiyeng tai 2007), officially known as the 24th Southeast Asian Games, was a South ...

, he won the men's team silver medal and men's doubles bronze medal. In all, Rungkat has won one medal

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

, three medals

Islamic Solidarity Games The Islamic Solidarity Games ( ar, ألعاب التضامن الإسلامي) is a multinational, multi-sport event. The Games involve the elite athletes of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation who compete in a variety of sports. The Solidari ...

, and fourteen medals

Southeast Asian Games The Southeast Asian Games, also known as the SEA Games, is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with supe ...

Singles: 3 (3 gold)

Doubles: 4 (2 gold, 2 bronze)

Mixed Doubles: 5 (3 gold, 2 silver)

Team: 6 (2 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze)

References

External links