Mitsuki reaches career-high ATP ranking to write Malaysian tennis history

KUALA LUMPUR: National tennis player Mitsuki Leong has now become the highest-ranked Malaysian ATP singles player of all time.

Mitsuki, achieved a career-high of No. 421 when the latest ATP rankings were released earlier this week.

He has now surpassed the previous marks set by Malaysian tennis legends V. Selvam (No. 424, Dec 1994) and Adam Malik (No. 436, April 1995).

Adam remains the highest ranked Malaysian doubles player (No. 122, June 1994).

Mitsuki has now comfortably achieved his goal of breaking into the top-500 this season.

"I have been on tour for almost four years now, so it feels great to achieve this. I am really happy," said the 22-year-old.

"With this higher ranking, I will have more opportunities to get direct entry to the qualifiers for ATP Challenger events.

"The goal now is to just keep improving generally and reach as high as possible."

The 22-year-old has been in strong form recently, reaching the quarter-finals in Guangzhou (Challenger 100) last week and semi-finals in Zhangjiagang (Challenger 75) earlier this month.

Mitsuki, who has struggled for funding throughout his career, expressed gratitude to his current sponsors KLKCare, Sanctband Global, HTM Pharmacy, Wilson, Asics and Mouratoglou Academy Malaysia.