KUALA LUMPUR: Promising tennis player Mitsuki Leong has made decent progress in the ATP rankings this year and will be looking to break into the top-500 next season.
The 20-year-old started the year ranked No. 823 and earlier this month achieved a career high No. 636.
Mitsuki's father-cum-coach Jeff Leong is pleased with his progress and is keen to see him continue maturing on tour.
"Our goal this season was to get Mitsuki to move up the rankings and be eligible to play in more challengers," said Jeff today.
"We have been able to achieve that and so far he has been able to play in five challenger tournaments.
"He has done well to come through qualifying and make the main draw in a number of these challengers.
"Playing in the challengers is a huge step up as he gets to play against players ranked about 100 to 200.
"These are players who have grand slam experience and are coming down from the ATP tour events to collect points.
"He needs to experience this level of tennis as the pace (of shots) and speed is much higher. It is closer to ATP tour level.
"Next year, we will try to break into the top-500. This should give him more opportunities to compete in bigger tournaments."
Mitsuki won two matches in qualifying to make the main draw and was able to reach the second round in Guangzhou (challenger 100) in September.
He lost to Frenchman Terence Atmane, who reached a career-high No.118 earlier this year, in three sets.
Mitsuki also qualified for the main draw in Nonthaburi (challenger 100) in September as well as Shenzhen (challenger 100) and Taiwan (challenger 125), which were both last month.
Jeff disclosed that Mitsuki picked up an elbow injury recently and is currently recovering in Malaysia. He is expected to return to the tour next month.
"His recovery has been going well, the Perak State Sports Council have given us a lot of support with his rehabilitation," said Jeff.
"Hopefully he can start competing again next month, we will likely play him in a futures tournament first."
The Leong family are based in Ipoh. Mitsuki's younger sister Shihomi, 17, is also a promising tennis player.
Futures tournaments are the lowest tier of tournaments on the pro circuit and offer substantially less ranking points and prize money than challengers.