Malta champion Matthew Asciak and the other Maltese players, who form the nucleus of the Maltese national team, albeit still Under 18 years of age, have performed beyond the federation’s expectations in the ITF world ranking tournament, sponsored by Wilson, at the Marsa SC.

On Monday Asciak beat Lewis Barnes of the UK 6-2 6-4 while yesterday he posted another win against Petr Dostal of the Czech Republic, whom he beat 6-0, 6-2.

Today Asciak will be playing against Krawceviz Roy of Austria.

Clayton Zammit, another promising junior, lost to Rick van de Bovenkampfirst of Holland in the first round.

Steffi Sullivan has shown a lot of improvement over last year. She started with a victory against Mona Piller of Switzerland, but then lost a tight match against Jessica Courtnell of the UK 6-2, 5-7, 1-6.

Kimberley Cassar had a great tournament playing for the first time in the Under 18 circuit. On the first day she managed to beat Wimmer Domenique of Austria 6-3 6-4. She has just returned from the elite Under 14 European junior championships where she placed eighth. Yesterday she lost narrowly to Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Rep. 7-6, 7-5.

Elaine Genovese lost 6-3 6-3 to the No. 1 seed, Tetyana Arefyeva of the Ukraine, despite a good effort.

In the doubles, Matthew Asciak and Mattea Pecotic beat Yannick Vandenvbulkwe/Morgan Lesure of Belgium 2-6, 6-3, 7-6. Elaine Genovese and Steffi Sullivan received a bye into the second round. Kimberley Cassar, partnering Martina Pradova of the Czech Rep., beat Lin Osterlund of Sweden and Denise Hubsch of Austria 6-2, 6-2.