Dear PLTC Members

About Diego

As you may be aware, the current PLTC Men’s Club Champion is leftie Diego Quispe-Kim, who will be playing Caro Bowl for Parnell this season. Diego, who is 16 years old, is currently New Zealand’s #1 under-18 Junior and is currently ranked #140 in the ITF Junior World Rankings. Diego has an ITF Win rate of 88% and has won 5 ITF J4 Junior titles. As Diego is only 16 years old, by 2023 many players currently above him in the ITF rankings will no longer be junior players, so his ranking is set to jump.

Diego’s Pathway to Future

Diego’s goal for 2023 is to compete for New Zealand in all of the four 2023 Grand Slam tournaments in the Junior events. For Diego to qualify for the main draw of those tournaments he has to improve his ITF Junior World Ranking, and to do that he needs to keep competing and winning in ITF Junior tournaments.

Diego’s short-term goals

The short-term goal for Diego is to play in the following ITF tournaments at the end of this month and October:

• J5 Auckland 26 – 30 September – family funded

• J3 Auckland 3 – 7 October – family funded

• JA Osaka, Japan 10 - 16 October – awaiting funding

• J2 Nagoya, Japan 18 - 23 October – awaiting funding

• J2 Chuncheon, South Korea 25 – 30 October – awaiting funding

  To be able to play in the tournaments in Japan and Korea, a budget of around $4,500 needs to be found to pay for airfares, accommodation and expenses.

Diego’s medium-term goals

The plan is for Diego to attain an ITF Junior ranking of under 44 by the end of the year, so he can get a direct entry into the Main draw of the Australian Open Boy’s Junior tournament in January 2023. If Diego performs well in the Australian Open, it will be a springboard to him being able to compete in the other three Grand Slam Junior events in 2023.

Diego’s long-term goals

Diego aspires to breaking into the top level of the ATP Professional Tour, that is clear. For him to do this, it is crucial for him to progress in his junior tennis career as this will give him the opportunity to then move onto the ATP Professional Tennis Tour.

Last December at the Taranaki Open Diego beat Ajeet Rai in the final 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 to win Men’s singles title. Ajeet Rai is currently playing no.1 in NZ’s Davis Cup team playing against Finland. So, it’s obvious that Diego has a big future ahead of him in tennis, and we hope that the Members at Parnell can support Diego financially to fund his tournament schedule in next month.

If you can help Support Diego in anyway, please contact Diego’s Father & Coach:

Juan’s mobile: 0272030017
email: gualbyqch@hotmail.com

Regards Team Diego

Article added: Friday 16 September 2022