Fresh from his twofold win in singles and doubles at the recent LTAM Juniors U-16 Malaysia tennis tournament held in Ipoh, 14-year-old Mitsuki Leong from SMJK Poi Lam, Ipoh, is now preparing for two of the biggest tournaments in his tennis career.
The Ipoh boy has been selected, together with a Korean female player, as the Asian representatives fully sponsored by the International Tennis Federation to participate in the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl Super Junior ITF Tennis Tournament in Florida, USA. The sponsorship is funded by the ITF grand slam development fund which selects only two players from Asia each year, a boy and a girl, to attend the renowned international junior tournaments.
The sponsorship selection was made based on Mitsuki’s excellent results achieved in the World Juniors in Sri Lanka in March, and two ITF Division 1 tournaments held in Bangkok this year.
“This is truly a dream come true for me. I will be playing against the best junior players in the world and we will also be training together in the world-renowned IMG tennis academy in Florida prior to the tournaments.”
Mitsuki’s father, tennis coach Jeff Leong said that this will be the start of many more international tournaments in the future for his older boy. Mitsuki’s 11-year-old sister Shihomi is equally talented and has won many tournaments beating older players.
“We are very lucky that this trip to USA is fully sponsored by ITF,” explained Jeff. “Tennis is a very expensive sport and the way forward for Mitsuki in his future development would be to expose himself to more international tournaments.
“We are currently looking for corporate sponsors to come alongside us in Mitsuki’s tennis journey for 2019. We also look forward to the support of our Malaysian sports council, Perak state government and other well wishers.”
Corporations and sponsors who would like to help our homegrown tennis star achieve his dreams of becoming a professional tennis player can contact Jeff Leong at 012 562 0351.
We wish the young athlete all the best in his upcoming tournaments. Perak boleh!
