KUALA LUMPUR: Tennis player Mitsuki Leong has decided to cut short his junior days and make the jump to the pro tour earlier than expected following some encouraging results.
The 18-year-old earned his first ever pro tour ranking points after making the second round of the ITF Futures M15 (RM67,000) event in Seremban last month.
The following week, he won all three of his qualifying matches at the Kuala Lumpur M15 before losing in the first round of the main draw.
A week later, Mitsuki again won all three of his qualifying round matches and made it to the quarter-finals of the Jakarta M15 for his best pro tour result to date.
Jeff Leong, who is Mitsuki's father-cum-coach, said he would focus on senior events from now on. Mitsuki won three ITF J4 and one J5 titles on the junior circuit earlier this year.
"Originally the plan was for Mitsuki to continue on the junior circuit until the end of the season as this is his last year (of eligibility)," said Jeff today.
"But after his recent results, we discussed his future plans and decided to make the transition early. Might as well because he still has to make the step-up next year.
"Mitsuki competed against quite a tough field in these M15s, which included top-100 and 200 players, and was able to do well.
"But we are taking things one step at a time. Mitsuki still has the physique of a boy but is competing against men, so it is quite demanding physically."
Jeff said that they would continue to search for sponsorships to enable Mitsuki to have more opportunities to compete on the pro circuit.
"We have not been able to secure any new sponsors yet. We are self-funded at the moment and the costs of competing are quite high," said Jeff.
"Mitsuki is not only the highest ranked junior in the country, but is also the only Malaysian to have an ATP ranking at the moment."
Ranked 195 in the ITF junior and 1,227 in the ATP, Mitsuki will represent Perak in the Malaysia Games on Sept 16-24. He will later head to Vietnam for a series of M25 tournaments.