KUALA LUMPUR: Fresh from winning a Malaysia Games tennis gold medal on Friday, Mitsuki Leong finds himself back on the road in pursuit of precious ATP ranking points at the Vietnam Futures M25 tournament (US$25,000) this week.
The 18-year-old has secured direct entry to both the singles and doubles main draw in Tay Ninh (Vietnam).
Mitsuki is partnering Darrshan Suresh, whom he had defeated in the Malaysia Games singles final, in the doubles.
Mitsuki, who is the highest placed Malaysian on the ATP rankings (1,253), is hoping to make it deep into the tournament.
"The Malaysia Games was a great experience, competing for your state is much different than normal tournaments as you have you whole team cheering for you, I really enjoyed myself," said Mitsuki.
"Darrshan asked me during the Malaysia Games whether I would be interested in pairing up with him in Vietnam and I thought it would be a good opportunity for us. We have never paired together before this.
"I am hoping to get a bit further in the main draw of the singles this time. There are a lot of good players here, so we will have to see how it goes."
Mitsuki has impressed since making the step-up to senior level ITF events in August and he made it to the quarterfinals of the Jakarta M15.
Darrshan will also be competing in the singles main draw in Vietnam after securing his place through the qualifiers.
The 21-year-old defeated American Ian Turner 6-2, 6-2 and Russian Maxim Krapivin 7-6, 7-6 in the first and second round of the qualifiers.