Anton Matusevich reckons he’s playing the best tennis of his life after winning the battle of the boffins and storming to the UK Pro League Week 2 title.

Sevenoaks star Matusevich, who studied a data science course in lockdown and is a keen economist, beat Imperial College Maths graduate and British No.18 Mark Whitehouse in Sunday’s final.

Matusevich, ranked one place above his opponent, triumphed 10-6 in a thrilling super tie-break after reaching the Week 2 final without dropping a set.

He looked a million dollars when beating former Wimbledon star Dan Cox on Tuesday and says he couldn’t be happier with the way he’s hitting the ball.

The 19-year-old, who regularly practices with Whitehouse, said: “I think I’ve just got used to the conditions and I’ve been playing quite a lot of matches.

“I played Dan Cox on the second day – and that’s probably the best match I’ve ever played in my life.

“It was quite an intense final and I’m really happy to get through it. Mark can play very good – especially indoors – and he hits it huge.

“I practice with him quite a lot and he can absolutely club the ball around the court – he showed that in the second set and I don’t think I did much wrong at the start.

“I’ve just really focused, been really consistent, tried to hold my serve and get in the rallies. I’m extremely happy to get through.

“I think once you get used to it, you get much better. I think the level has actually been better than it was last week, in general.”

The innovative UK Pro League is the brainchild of Jamie Delgado – Andy Murray’s coach – and brings together the country’s top professional tennis players across nine separate weeks from March to November.

The season-long competition involves players competing in a round robin format in eight individual qualifying weeks, with the weekend play-offs then giving them the opportunity to accumulate ranking points to seal qualification for November’s Finals Week.

Matusevich claimed a third-place finish in Week 1 of the competition to rack up 12 ranking points and a maximum haul of 18 in Week 2 has now catapulted him to the summit of the table.

The precocious Kent talent finished at the top of Pool A after winning all five of his round robin matches before toppling Sean Hodkin 7-5 6-2 on semi-final Saturday.

He was forced to battle against Whitehouse but after his opponent levelled the scores to take him to a first super tie-break of the week, Matusevich held his nerve to hold the Week 2 trophy aloft in Loughborough.

The distinctive UK Pro League allows players to build up valuable match practice on a regular basis and Matusevich hailed the format for accelerating his career.

“These tournaments are great,” he added.

“It gives players opportunities to play matches, earn a bit of money and get into the competitive spirit.

“Rather than playing practice sets all the time, this is way more fun.”

*With a prize fund of around £500k and Broadcast live on BT Sport, the UK Pro League is the only place where the British player group come together to compete across the full year.