Weeks of hard work, practice & expectations will be narrowed down to tomorrow as the Sri Lankan Junior Nationals will come alive in this centenary year of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association.
A total of over 600 participants will flock the courts of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association for the junior title starting from tomorrow (6th August) till the 14th of August. The Junior Nationals is the curtain raiser for a month filled tennis extravaganza with the Senior and Wheelchair nationals expected to commence in mid August.
The tournament will be worked out on an elimination basis with the draws ruled up by the tournament organizers and the finals for each of the age categories taking place in the penultimate days. Due to the large count of participants in the Boys under 10 singles, under 14 singles, under 16 singles and the girls under 14 singles, the organizers will have an initial qualification round and the top 32 will be eligible to join the main draw.
A total of 19 titles will be on offer in this championship including both doubles and singles starting from the under 10 age group till the under 18 age category. The organizers believe the large numbers in the participation is definitely a boost for the sport in the country and the future for the racket game looks quite fruitful.
Another interesting feature in this year’s junior title run is that there will be participants from around the country participating in the main draw which in SLTA’s perspective thinks will up the game regionally.
The under 18 title run will be the highlight in the junior national run as the seeded players will take the SLTA center court for the title. The girl’s under 18 draw is cued with exciting draws as defending champion Nethmi Waduge will opt to retain the title for the second successive occasion. Alongside her will be her colleague Visakhian Thisuri Molligoda & Medira Samrasinghe who will compete for the win.
It will be a battle between the Royalists in the under 18 boys draw where Royalist B. Suren is set to be the main contender for the finals. Alongside Suren are top seeds Chehan Fernando, Akila Vimukthi & Archana Lokuge who will search for victory. The top two seeds B. Suren & Anish Wijesinghe will receive a bye from the first round and will get direct qualification to the second round.
Despite the high participation in the singles categories, there is a significant drop in the doubles entries in all categories. It is surprising to see only one entry in the Girl’s Doubles whilst there are 14 singles entries. The story is similar in other age groups as well.
The matches will commence at 8.30 a.m.
