Matthew Asciak was eliminated from the Austrian tournament in which he was taking part last week in the quarter-finals.

He lost to Kovalik from Poland 6/0 4/6 3/6.The tournament was eventually won by Kovalik.

In all there were 326 players taking part. 128 players in the qualifying rounds and 128 players in the main draw. This tournament is considered to be one of the biggest in Europe.

The players he beat to reach the quarter-finals are;

Fredrik Ask – No 2 player in Norway – 6/1 6/2; Franco Picco – from Italy – 6/2 6/4; Daniel Spurny – from Germany – 6/4 6/1 and Peter Heller – from Germany – 4/6 6/3 6/1

Just before the tournament, Matthew trained for four days in Palermo at the TC2 Tennis Club. Matthew also practised with Roberta Vinci ranked no 60 WTA, who trains regularly at this club.

Vinci has been training for the Australian Open which started yesterday. Matthew’s next tournament will be in Tunisia, a grade 3 event and after that the ITF Junior tournament here in Malta which will be held at the Marsa Sports Club.

One week before the tournament in Malta, the Tennis Club in Palermo will be sending over one top junior or one of the their top coaches to help out with Matthew’s training.

All this is possible because of the sponsorship given to Asciak by the German airline Lufthansa.