Young Matthew Asciak had a most encouraging performance in his recent participation at the prestigious tournament for the world’s top youngsters, The Orange Bowl, in Miami, Florida, the United States.

He returned to Malta earlier this week.

Asciak was very unlucky to have been drawn against the No 1 of the United States, Kecki Mateusz, losing 6-1 6-1.

But he then competed in the net draw for all the 100 players who did not reach the quarter-finals of the main draw.

Asciak did extremely well as he managed to reach the fourth round.

In this event, he had a walk over in the first round, but then beat top German player Cedrik Stebe 6-0, 6-1. Germany had two players at the Orange Bowl and Stebe had won his first match in the main draw.

In the third round, Asciak beat Japan’s Shuichi Sekiguchi 6-1 6-1. Earlier, the Japanese youngster had beaten a top US player.

In the fourth round, Matthew was faced by the world’s No. 8 who joined the draw as he had just failed to reach the quarter-finals. This was Magin Ortiga of Colombia who went on to beat Asciak 6-4 6-3 in a match which produced some excellent tennis and lasted two and a half hours.

This tournament provided excellent experience for the local top youngster as he was playing alongside the world’s top players – in fact, only the world’s best players in this category are selected to take part.