Malta champion Matthew Asciak is currently in Malaysia taking part in ITF Futures tournaments, open for those players who are just starting out on the professional circuit.

With useful ATP ranking points at stake, Asciak played the first tournament in Kuala Lumpur and did well to clear three qualifying rounds before suffering elimination at the hands of an experienced opponent in the main draw.

In the first match, Asciak beat Malaysia's Prasad Selvarajoo 6-0 6-1 before eliminating Ji Shi, from China, 6-4 6-2 and then Czech no.8 seed David Sodek in three long sets, 3-6 7-6 6-3. This match lasted three hours.

In the main draw, Asciak was pitted against no.2 seed Nick Lindahl from Australia.

Lindahl enjoys a respectable ranking of 240 in the ATP list. He was a first-round loser in this year's Australian Open were he was beaten by France's Richard Gasquet in four sets. Lindahl beat Asciak 6-2 6-4.

Maltese-Australian Jonathan Desira also took part in the Kuala Lumpur tournament but was beaten in the first qualifying round by China's Qing Zhou 6-1 6-1.

Asciak has decided to take a year off from his studies to focus on his tennis. Along with Desira, he will be taking part in another Futures Tournament in Malaysia, starting on Monday in Selangor.

Asciak faces home player Ashaari Zainal and Desira plays against China's Bin Jiang in the Last 64 stage. The tournament has a prize-money fund of $15,000.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.