The Asian Tennis Federation under 14 (week 1) tournament which was worked off at the Gymkhana Club premises witnessed its successful conclusion on the 8th of November.
The tournament which commenced on the 1st of November attracted the likes of a number of talented players from a range of countries including the host nation Sri Lanka, India, Hong Kong, China, Australia, United States of America and Canada.
The action unfolded in four events which were the Boy’s under 14 singles, Boys under 14 doubles, Girls under 14 singles and Girls under 14 doubles.
The star of the show was undoubtedly the talented Indian Vandit Jaiswal who completed a prestigious double by winning both the boys singles and doubles events. The unseeded Jaiswal defeated the fourth seed Thevan Perera and the top seed Sandesh Kantimahanti on route to the final before defeating his fellow countrymen Kavan Somukumar 6-4 5-7 6-1 in the finals. The duo went on to prove themselves as a lethal doubles pairing as they smashed their way through the draw in order to book a final against the Lankan pairing of Akith Gunawardena and Thevan Perera who they defeated 7-5 6-0.
The girl’s singles event was won by unseeded Chinese player Zhenghui Tian who achieved a remarkable feat of defeating the number 1, 2 and 3 seeds in order to claim the top honors. She put on a clinical display of tennis in order to defeat the number 2 seed Anika Seneviratne 6-3 6-3 in order to win the finals. The girl’s doubles event was won by Prabuddhi Perera and Anika Seneviratne who defeated Anya Gunewardena and Sathi Siyara Silva in the finals with a score line of 1-6 6-3 10-5.
The prize giving of the tournament was held immediately after the commencement of the final day’s matches and witnessed the presence of officials from the SLTA including Udith Wickremasinghe along with the tournament referee Dharaka Ellawala along with representatives from Head (3G Sports), Anilana Hotels and Resorts, Nation Lanka Finance, Colombo Engineering and MTD Construction who were the sponsoring organizations.
One of the main sponsors of the tournament Mr. Asanga Seneviratne addressed the gathering and expressed his sincere gratitude to the supporting staff for doing their best to ensure that the courts were in good condition regardless of the bad weather conditions. He also went onto state the importance of the tournament in the light of developing young talent which is essential for the further improvement of the sport of tennis.
The week 2 tournament is scheduled to commence on the 10th of November and will be officiated by white badge referee Mufaddal Hazari. The Papare.com takes this opportunity to wish all the players the best of luck ahead of the tournament which is guaranteed to produce tennis of a very high caliber.
