Darian King has finished the year with his best ranking but he isn’t satisfied.
Barbados’ top tennis player completed his 2012 tournament schedule in fine style by winning the Men’s F14 Futures Doubles Championship with Australian partner Yuir Bezeruk in Merida, Mexico, last week.
The doubles title was Darian’s fourth for the year, and his sixth in total since he started on the Pro Circuit in early 2011, taking his total number of cups to eight following the two Futures singles titles he picked up in Manzanillo, Mexico, two months ago.
King recently broke into the world’s top 500 ranked players and is aiming higher.
Prior to heading to Mexico, he competed in the qualifying rounds of the higher graded ATP Challengers in Charlottesville and Knoxville, United States where he had some good wins over players ranked in the top 300s.
“My goal is to make it in the top 250 and hopefully play the [qualifiers] of a Grand Slam event in 2013,” he was quoted as saying in a press release.
Playing under lights in Merida, King and Bezeruk had a comfortable 6-3, 6-1 straight-sets victory over hometown boy Mauricio Astorga and Marvin Barker of New Zealand.
King just missed out on playing in another final, bowing out in the semis to Frenchman and eventual singles champ Lucas Pouille 6-0, 6-4.
Fellow Barbados Davis Cup player Haydn Lewis, who has been taking a break from the Pro Circuit for the last few months, is set to defend his men’s singles title at the NCB Capital Markets Jamaica Open Championships in Kingston this week.
Both King and Lewis will then likely be back in action on the Pro Tennis circuit in January as a warm up for the Davis Cup Americas Zone Group II first round tie against El Salvador in San Salvador. (JM/PR)
