The third and final week of the Astoria Women’s Futures Championship commenced today (16th Monday) at the clay courts of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association.
The $15,000 prize money will be up for grabs for one final time for the Sri Lankan bred Adithya Karunaratne as she lucked her way through a wild card entry into the main draw of 24 players. She will await to face off against a fresh entry from the qualifying rounds tomorrow.
“I want to be a player with an unforgettable presence” – Adithya Karunarathne
In Sri Lanka’s century long journey in the sport of tennis…
The only other local in the mix of 24 is Nethmi Waduge, also through a wild card entry. She will be going in to the tournament with an ATP/WTA career singles ratio of 3 wins and 10 losses in a main draw. She will face the likes of Serbain Tamara Curovic who is seeded 6th in this year’s draw and has a career highest of 394 in the singles category.
Hasindhi Lokuge was unfortunate this morning as she went up against 20 year old Australian Sasha Alexander. Alexander finished the match off in an easy 6/1, 6/0 contest with a clean record with no breaks in her serve. Although Alexander’s preferred surface of play is grass, she conquered the muddy clay here in Sri Lanka to earn her place in the main draw.
Hasindhi’s journey in the tour has one more stride as she partners up with Riddhi Sharma to battle a Chinese pair in the 1st round of the doubles category which will take place later on in the week.
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