KUALA LUMPUR: With an eye on transitioning to the senior tour next year, Christian Didier Chin has decided to skip three Futures events in Malaysia next month to focus on improving his world junior rankings.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) have introduced a new system this year where juniors ranked in the top-100 will be in the running to compete in the 'transition tour' in the following season. The new tour is intended to aid juniors make the difficult step up to the senior tour.
Christian reached a career-high junior ranking of No 44 in January but has since slipped to No 124 following a poor run of form since the European clay court season started due to a lack of preparation on the surface.
His ranking drop will see him miss the Wimbledon Juniors and he has also decided to skip the entire grass court season.
Instead of focusing on collecting senior tour points from the three futures US$15,000 (RM60,230) events which will be held back-to-back from July 2-22 at the National Tennis Complex in Jalan Duta, he has decided to go Down Under to prepare for the upcoming hard court season.
"I have a personal wish to play these Malaysian events unfortunately the timing and category do not align with my immediate goals which are influenced by the incentives on offer from the new ITF system," said Christian.
"Under a new ranking system governed by ITF for 2019, players like myself will receive automatic entry into US$15,000 (RM60,230) and US$25,000 (RM100,391) events, if I finish 2018 inside the top-100 (in junior rankings).
"My team and I are in total agreement that we will spend the rest of this year improving my junior ranking in preparation for a fruitful year in 2019. This includes training and preparation in Australia for the US Open Juniors and other major Under-18 tournaments.
"There is no disrespect or protest towards LTAM behind my decision to withdraw and I passionately remain available for national assignments when required."
He is currently playing at the ITF Gladbeck Junior Cup (Grade Two) in Germany where he has made the quarterfinals in the boys' doubles with Vietnam’s Phuong Van Nguyen. They played German pair Jakob Cadonau-Max Wiskandt late on Wednesday.
Christian, who lost to Romanian Mihal Razvan Marinescu in the opening round of the singles, will travel to Brisbane to train once his campaign ends in Gladbeck and subsequently compete in hard court tournaments there.