KUALA LUMPUR: Professional tennis player Mitsuki Leong is determined to continue fighting his way up the rankings this year.
After a slow start to the year, Mitsuki enjoyed a positive run in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand where he played two tournaments (ITF M15) back-to-back over the past fornight.
He reached the final in the first week, in which he lost to Thailand's Kasidit Samrej in the decider, and the quarterfinals in the second tournament, this time losing to Pawit Sornlaksup (Thailand).
Nakhon Si Thammarat hosts a number of ITF futures tournaments each year which are spread across the season. Mitsuki won his maiden M15 tournament there in September last year.
Mitsuki, who is set to turn 20 next month, anticipates his ranking to reach a new career high when the updated rankings are released next week.
"The points I gained here are new points which will be added to my (current) ranking points. The tournament I won here last year was in September and I will have to defend those when the time comes," said Mitsuki earlier this week.
"My ATP ranking is currently No. 792, I think my ranking should go up to somewhere between the high six hundreds to the low seven hundreds when the new rankings are out.
"My goal this year is to make it into the top-500 in the rankings.
"This will give me a better chance of playing in the challengers. It won't guarantee me a spot but at least I will have a better shot at making it in."
Mitsuki made the step up to playing senior ITF events in late 2022 and his ranking at the end that year was No. 1,243.
The ATP challenger tour features bigger tournaments which offer substantially more ranking points and higher prize purses the ITF futures events. The latter are seen as the entry point into professional tennis.
Mitsuki disclosed that he will next head to either Kazakhstan or Taiwan to play tournaments there.