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Sussing out Susilo


Mee, mahjong and mobile phones - he remains an ordinary man




By Elaine Lo




HE SET the galleries on fire at the Singapore Indoor Stadium two weeks ago with a giant-killing run at the five-star Yonex-Sunrise Singapore Open. But runner-up Ronald Susilo is not basking in the afterglow.




The badminton player, who is now something of a household name, cannot afford to ease up on his rigorous training schedule. Or get away from mundane tasks like washing, ironing and tidying up.




'Sorry for the mess,' said the 23-year-old when Timesport visited him at the three-room flat in Aljunied which he shares with team-mate Indra Wijaya and doubles coach Dicky Purwotjugiono.




Clothes were piled against a wall in the living room, magazines littered the couch and disorder dominated a desk.




Just outside stood the bicycle which he uses to get to the Singapore Badminton Hall for his daily training sessions.




He attends two training sessions on weekdays and one in the morning on Saturdays. Sunday is a day of rest, but he does not sleep in.




A Catholic, christened Stefanus, he attends Sunday mass at the Cathedral Of The Good Shepherd.




On weekends, he hangs out mostly with 'the badminton guys', usually around Orchard Road. They shop, go for movies, watch football or play snooker - another game in which he usually wins.




'I give them 30 to 40 points but they still lose. What can I do?' he asked, grinning.




'He's really good at it and wins most of the time,' said fellow-shuttler Wayne Kuo. 'But he's a nice guy, very humble and fun.'




Apart from badminton, Susilo enjoys basketball, table tennis and 'most sports where I have to use my hands'. But he loathes bowling and golf.




In mahjong, the odds are spread more evenly among his friends, though he claims he has a 'lucky hand' which enables him to draw the right tiles at the right time.




Team-mate Patrick Lau, who plays with him occasionally, agreed: 'It's true. He wins eight out of 10 times.'




Timesport visited Susilo on a morning that he had been excused from training because of an ankle injury and blisters, which forced him to pull out of the Indonesia Open that ends today.




However, he had a physiotherapy session scheduled for later in the day and was attending the Singapore Pools' Multi-Million Dollar Award Programme (MAP) ceremony at the Indoor Stadium in the evening.




'I don't usually go out on weeknights, apart for dinner,' he said.




He eats out almost every day as his culinary skills are restricted to frying eggs and cooking instant noodles.




Despite living in Indonesia until he was 14, he says he does not have any particular craving for Indonesian food.




But he said: 'I must have noodles, any kind of noodles, at least once a day. I also like seafood - crabs, prawns, anything. I can eat a lot of that and frog legs too.'




What he does miss about Indonesia is his family in west Jakarta. An only son, he admits sheepishly that his parents and three older sisters 'doted' on him.




He flies back for visits over the weekend, usually about five or six times a year.




His second sister, Caroline, three years older than him and now married to Indonesian doubles specialist Candra Wijaya, had also shown potential as a badminton player.




When he was 11, the Susilo siblings were enrolled at Jakarta's famous Jaya Raya Club, which produced champions like Susi Susanti and Bambang Suprianto.




Now that he is a Singaporean, he says he would not be surprised if he were booed when he plays in Indonesia.




'I hope not,' he said. 'But I will expect it.'




But unlike many of Singapore's foreign-born athletes, he did not come here to play badminton. He came to study.




In 1993, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) offered him a place after an ex-student watched him play in a tournament here for Jaya Raya and recommended him to the school.




He was then No 3 among the Indonesian juniors but decided badminton had to take a back seat to studies.




'I still remember the day I moved to Singapore - Dec 3, 1993. My first day in school was tough because my English was really bad,' he said.




His good friend and national team-mate Khoo Kian Teck recalled: 'We were room-mates during our four years at ACS. All he could say was 'Yes' and 'No' when he first came.'




On court, Susilo's game spoke volumes. He remained undefeated in the inter-school tournaments and helped ACS (I) win numerous titles.




He had a taste of being on the losing end in the Singapore Open final, when he was was thrashed 4-15, 1-15 by China's Chen Hong. It is not something he wants to experience again.




Still, it was his first singles final in a major tournament and he draws solace from that, preferring to now focus on the upcoming Asian Games.




Does he ever think about what might have been had he stayed with Jaya Raya?




'Sometimes,' he said. 'I was ahead of Taufik Hidayat then. After I left, he rose so fast.




'For badminton, it was four years lost because I was playing only for my school. When I went back to badminton full-time, I was losing to everybody. I had to start all over again.'




He scored 12 points in his preliminary examinations but took it easy after that. His O-level examination results suffered - he managed only 20 points. This was still good enough for junior college.




He said: 'Raffles Junior College offered me a place after my prelims because of badminton but I decided not to take it up in the end.




'Partly because I was tired of studies. And partly because of the Asian economic crisis. I didn't want to spend more of my parents' money.'




He declined to say how much he earns now and the Singapore Badminton Association also refused to give details.




It only said that he gets to keep all his prize money and that, apart from a modest monthly salary, there are incentives for wins. Lodging and tournament travel expenses are also paid for.




He has, however, made a tidy sum with his Singapore Open and Commonwealth Games successes. His runner-up prize for the Singapore Open was US$6,800 (S$11,900) and he became $12,500 richer from the MAP scheme, for being part of the team that won a silver at the Commonwealth Games.




He usually splurges on cellular phones, he confessed. Currently, he has three, including a Nokia 9210 Communicator which allows him to e-mail.




It is an indulgence he can afford - he has no girlfriend at the moment, he says.




So what is that silver band doing on his left ring finger?




'I just wear the ring for fun,' he replied. 'Right now, badminton is my only girlfriend.'