In a statement 2022 season, Omar Jasika reminded observers of his tennis gifts. With confidence rising, he says he is ready to take his career to the next level.
Melbourne, Australia, 8 January 2023 | Matt Trollope
When tennis.com.au caught up with Omar Jasika at the Australian Tennis Awards in December, he had recently completed a dream season with an Australian Pro Tour title in Traralgon.
It was his fifth ITF tournament victory of 2022, a year in which he re-established himself after a lengthy absence, and reminded tennis observers of his talents.
Brimming with confidence, the 25-year-old said he was ready to take his career to the next level.
“I’ve set myself the goal that I want to be top 100 (in 2023), and I think it’s very possible,” said Jasika, who reached eight finals in 2022.
“I played a lot of players this year that have been inside 100 and I’ve beaten a few of them, and it’s given me hope as well.”
Jasika was a US Open junior champion in 2014, and began to hit his professional stride a few years later, competing at Australian Open 2017 as the winner of the AO wildcard play-off and winning his first career ATP Challenger title in Burnie shortly after that. He peaked at world No.239 that April.
But he was derailed by a two-year ban for a positive cocaine test in 2018, and as he prepared to come back in early 2020, he faced another obstacle.
“My first tournament back was a Futures tournament in Geelong, and that tournament got cancelled due to COVID. That’s when COVID started,” he recalled.
“I couldn’t believe that that was my first tournament back, and COVID, this thing I’ve never heard of, it’s come around and it’s cancelled a tournament and that’s unheard of.
“That was crazy. So I lost hope again.”
It would ultimately be four years between competitive outings for the left-hander.
In that time, he did not touch a racquet for two years, and took up a job in a factory. When he did resume, he was simply hitting once a week with a friend, not training seriously.
But the lure of elite competition proved strong.
He increased his training, built confidence and match-fitness by entering Australian Money Tournaments, and made his professional-level return in February 2022 at an ITF Futures event in Canberra.
Unranked, he started in the qualifying rounds, and immediately began winning.
“I just really missed competing. And I thought I’d just tell myself, just go out there,…
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