GRAND SLAM BOOST
Christian gets coveted slot on GSDF Team
FADHLI ISHAK fadhli.ishak@nst.com.my
TENNIS player Christian Didier Chin’s dream of becoming the first Malaysian to win a grand slam has received a boost when he was given a coveted slot on the ITF's under-18 Grand Slam Development Fund (GSDF) Team.
Christian will travel to Australia on Jan 9-27 with the team, which is financed by GSDF, to take part in a training camp and more importantly compete in the AGL Loy Yang Tralagon Junior International as well as the Australian Open Junior Championship.
The Sabahan, who has risen to No 77 in the World junior rankings, said he is determined to keep improving.
"This year has been great, I really did not expect to make this much progress and manage to be this successful,” said Christian, who was named Player of The Year at LTAM's ACE Awards recently. "But there is a lot of room for improvement. I am still adapting to playing on different surfaces such as clay.
"I still have some tournaments left to play in the United States and will then have pre-season training at the Johan Kriek Tennis Academy.
"After that I will be heading to Australia with the GDSF team which I am also very excited about."
The 17-year-old will compete in the Orange Bowl International Junior Championships which starts tomorrow in Florida.
The tournament is one of the most prestigious junior events in the world after the grand slams.
Christian, who will be competing in all four junior Grand Slams next year, has also begun to make an impact at senior level.
He reached the semi-finals in the doubles at the Kuala Lumpur Futures event in October where he partnered Nitin Kumar Sinha of India. The feat saw him earning a senior doubles ranking of 1,498.