Sri Lanka junior boys’ tennis team went got off to a flying start recording a 3-0 win over Singapore in their opening tie of the ITF World Junior (14 & under) boys’ Tennis Team Championship Asia/Oceania Group ‘C’ Pre-qualifiers that commenced at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association courts yesterday.
The Lankan lads dominated all three matches of the tie winning the two singles and doubles with straight set victories. Chathurya Nilaweera won the first singles beating Rikhil Mulani 6/0, 6/4 and Nelaka Dissanayake defeated Bill Yew Tang Chan 6/0, 6/2 in the second singles. Nelaka and Chathurya then paired off well to beat Singaporean pair Yew Tang Cha and Rikhil Mulani in the doubles match 6/1, 7/5 to seal a comfortable victory.
The Lankan boys will battle with Laos today in their second tie of the tournament, commencing at 8.30 am.
The victorious Lankan boys’ team included non playing captain/coach Sankha Atukorale, Chathurya Nilaweera, Nelaka Dissanayake, Wenuka Kithnula and Apna Perera.
In the other matches completed yesterday Malaysia beat Laos (2-1), Kuwait beat Saudi Arabia (2-1) and Philippines beat Pakistan (2-1).
The 14 & Under Junior Girls’ Team Championship Asia/Oceania Pre-qualify openers saw Lebanon and Kyrgyzstan making a clean sweep of their matches (3-0) over Malaysia and Mongolia respectively while Iran beat Singapore (2-1).
Sri Lanka is hosting back to back three ITF junior tennis events where 46 teams from 21 countries are taking part in four events until March 18 at SLTA courts.
The World Junior Team event will be followed by the Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas and Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas (Under 16) Asia/ Oceania pre-qualifying events from March 10.
Two teams each from the World Junior Tennis boys’ and girls’ competitions as well as the Junior Davis Cup event and three teams from the Junior Fed Cup tournament will be selected to take part in the final qualifying round.
The Lanka Junior Davis Cup team consisted of Kavisha Ratnayake, Chathurya Nilaweera and Ashen Silva with Ganendran Subramaniam as the non playing captain. The host country’s Junior Fed Cup team includes Anjalika Kurera, Savini Jayasuriya and Oneli Perera with Thangarajah Dineshkanthan being the non playing captain.
The Referee for the event, Tony Glentworth of New Zealand is the referee for all four events with Sri Lankan Dharaka Ellawala as the Assistant Referee. The other officials include Sri Lankan white badge officials Dinusha Wijesuriya, Prasad Jayalatharachchi, Anjana de Silva and Avantha Suranimala as well as a number of National umpires. Amir Borghei and Jonathan Stubbs are the ITF representatives at the events.
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