Adithya Karunaratne was knocked out in the 2nd round of the Astoria Women’s Futures WTA Tour 3rd week at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association Courts in Colombo.
Adithya Karunaratne through ‘wild-card’ to the Astoria Women’s Futures
The third and final week of the Astoria Women’s Futures…
Adithya Karunaratne was in a heated clash against India’s Jennifer Luikham as she battled for the much-needed point for her transition to the big leagues.
Change of weather conditions is a sportsman’s least favourite, during a competitive tournament. Coming prepared to compete on a stickier surface in Colombo at the Astoria Tennis Futures, 15-year old Karunaratne played her first match of the tournament’s final week with hopes of winning.
She was one point short of directly playing in the main draw of major WTA tournaments back home and neighbouring Tunisia. Travelling back to her roots to compete in a three week long tournament against much elder and exposed world ranked players, Adithya held her own under wet conditions.
In a tight contest neither player was willing to give up their service games. In all three weeks she played, this match seemed most competitive for Adithya as every stroke that came out of her strings were timed perfectly. She was extra careful on her serves and her footwork got into sync against the 19-year old.
The first set saw no breaks with the score reading 5-5 and it was the experience and maturity that pulled Luikham through to finally breaking and finishing off the set 7/5.
With screams of victory and frustration coming from both ends, Adithya found herself with an early break at the start of the 2nd set. She held her serve for the next 2 games at 3-1 with a couple of unforced errors coming off the backhand of the Indian. Adithya, marvellously came out the victor in the second set with another break of serve to go up 5-4 and eventually served out the set 6-4.
Both players entered the third and final set with the hope of moving closer to the $15,000 prize money. Timed perfectly and placed strategically, Karunaratne’s shots were screaming louder as she found herself with an early break to capture the first game. But, Luikham immediately broke back with thundering serves leaving Adithya short of strides.
“I want to be a player with an unforgettable presence” – Adithya Karunarathne
In Sri Lanka’s century long journey in the sport of tennis…
Father Lloyd and Coach Juan at her side, Adithya stayed steady at the baseline while Luikham pushed her limits wide off court forcing errors. And at 3-2 Jennifer Luikham found the break she was looking to go up 4-2.
It was inspiring to see Lankan blood not giving up till the last shot of the match as Jennifer went on to break and win on Adithya’s serve to finish the match 7/5, 4/6, 6/2.
6th seed Tamara Curovic faced the only other local in the 24 man main draw, Nethmi Waduge, who who went down tamely with a score of 6/0, 6/1
