KUCHING: National tennis ace Mohd Assri Merzuki earned his first ranking points for the year at the US F3 Men’s Futures in Weston, Florida, United States recently.
The 19-year-old professional from Kampung Semariang, Kuching partnered Ivo Minar of Czech Republic to reach the men’s doubles semi-finals of the tournament which was held from Jan 20-26.
The Assri -Minar pair laboured to a 5-7, 7-6(2) (10-8) win over wild card entry Daniel Jr Burgess (US) and Andrey Tereshchenko (Russia) in the first round and they went on to defeat Roman Bordvanov (Moldova) and David Crisovan (US) 6-1, 6-3 in the last eight. They put up a gallant fight against tournament top seeds Jason Jung-Evan King (US) to lost narrowly 2-6, 7-6 (3), (8-10) in the semi-finals.
In the men’s singles qualifying, Assri, who was the 12th seed, thrashed Milos Sekulic of Sweden 6-0, 6-1 in the first round.
He then beat Spanish hopeful Ricardo Rodeiro-Stetson 6-2, 6-2 in the second round but was beaten 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 by American Daniel Kerznerman in the third round.
Assri commenced his hunt for ranking points in the year by competing in the men’s singles at the US F1 Men’s Futures in Plantation, Florida from Jan 6-12.
He bowed out of the first round after losing 0-6, 1-6 to Brian Page Jnr of the US.
In the next tournament which was the US F2 Men’s Futures in Sunrise, Florida from Jan 13-19, Assri got past the first round of the men’s singles qualifying by beating his Canadian opponent Jordan Sweeney 6-1, 6-0.
He was shown the exit in the second round by Jonathan Mridha of Sweden who won 7-6(4), 6-2.
It was the same story for Assri at the US F4 Men’s Futures at Palm Coast, Florida last week as the tournament fourth seed could only reach the second round of the singles qualifying after receiving a bye in the first round.
He was beaten 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 by Ryota Tanuma of Japan.
Assri partnered Ivo Minar in the men’s doubles of the same event to stage a upset win of 6-0, 6-3 over second seeds Malcolm Harrison (US) and Pedro Sakamoto (Brazil). They were stopped in the second round by the American pair Taylor Harry Fritz and Martin Redlicki who triumphed 6-1, 7-6(5).
After competing in the four US tournaments this year, Assri is now ranked 1,388 in the men’s singles and 1376 in the men’s doubles.
He will play in two more Men’s Futures tournaments before flying to the Philippines to compete in the first leg of the ITF Men’s Futures US$15,000 from Mar 24-30 and returning to Kuching for the second leg at Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) Tennis Centre from Mar 31 to Apr 6.
Assri will then spearhead the Sarawak tennis team at Sukma XVII in Perlis from May 27 to June 4, after which he will return to train and compete in the US.
Meanwhile, SLTA president Dato Patrick Liew said he is pleased with Assri’s progress but wanted him to do even better.
“Based on the feedback from Assri’s coach Doru Sorin Morariu, the young man will have to work harder to overcome his weaknesses,” he said.
“Doru is very excited and impressed with Assri’s recent performance and he stressed that Assri’s problem is his mental focus. He tends to lose his focus when trailing his opponents.”
“Assri needs to adapt and adjust to play against those who have been playing in the ATP/ITF tournaments for more than 20 years.”
“We are encouraged by the fact that Assri is an aggressive, determined and committed player as well as a fighter. Give him more time and he will be there among the top players in the world,” added Liew.
He felt that Assri had to play in more high level tournaments to become a better player.
“He will be the best in Malaysia and I believe it would be very hard for anyone in the country to beat him,” said Liew.