THE name Michael Agwi will just not go away in tennis circles as the 20-year-old Irish talent continues to make waves on the ITF circuit. Last weekend, Agwi became the first Irish player in five years to win an ITF singles title, and is now at a career-high 754th in the world.

Easily Ireland’s top ranked player – male or female – Agwi bolted up 182 places following his ITF win at the M15 tournament in Oberhaching, his first professional singles title. It is far from an outlier though, with Agwi playing some sensational tennis to-date.

At the recent Davis Cup against Austria in Ireland, Agwi had set points against Grand Slam champion Dominic Thiem and was competitive against Lucas Miedler in his singles matches. Earlier in the month, Agi reached the final of the M15 event in Cadolzburg, Germany on carpet, where he went down in three sets to home court hope, Daniel Masur, 3-6 6-3 6-4 after winning the first set.

At Oberhaching in Germany, Agwi came from qualifying to win seven straight matches – only dropping a set along the way – to take out the M15 title. He defeated German Max Hans Rehberg in the final, 7-6 6-1 to storm to victory after a tight first set.

Boasting a 9-1 record on the ITF Tour this year, Agwi is quickly making waves professionally as he eyes further improvement in his game. A powerful player who is able to play with both confidence and freedom, Agwi is a worry to opponents. He might be raw and not have the consistency in his shots as more experienced players, but has been able to accomplish plenty of late.

Speaking to ITFtennis.com, Agwi said his confidence was growing and he hoped to get as far as he could with his tennis in the future.

“My goal is not to stop there and to improve, to play all tournaments successfully,” Agwi said. “I don’t want to set goals to win more tournaments, I just want to set goals to play my best. If I reach the potential I can reach then I’m happy.

“If that’s to get further in the rankings, even if it’s only 700 or 600 in the world, I would be happy if that’s really my potential, and it’s the maximum I can reach. I just want to be happy on the court and happy to be grinding. That’s basically the goal.”

His goal last season was to reach the top 1000, but he only accomplished that in the first week of the year. His next major ranking target is the top 300. Like many players though, Agwi is financially limited which is the reason behind him playing limited tournaments outside of Germany, where he grew up after being born in Ireland.

“I would like to have played more but I didn’t have the financial support to travel or to play outside of Berlin. I played national tournaments in Berlin,” Agwi said. And now my hometown club is helping me to play [on the ITF World Tennis Tour].”

Agwi is a player to watch over the next 12 months, with the 20-year-old getting everything to click. He is a strong server, and when his first serve is up and about, the Irishman can win a lot of cheap points. He loves to approach like a serve-volleyer too which is rarer in this day and age, but just needs the finishing technical skill more consistency to compete with the best players.