Anika Seneviratne and Anya Gunawardene will take on Singapore while Inthujan Selvaratnarajah, Avindra Perera and Vibuda Wijebandara, will face Syria in the Semi final rounds of the Junior Davis Cup, today.
The girls’ matches of the tournament, which started on the 12th of March, will be played at the Gymkhana Club and the boys’ matches will be played at the SLTA courts.
In the quarter final round, the Sri Lankan boys’ won both their singles against Kyrgyzstan. Selvaratnarajah defeated Abdul Yusupov, 3-6 1-6 and Perera defeated Kiril Kistanov, 4-6 4-6. Though they were unable to surpass the Kyrgyzstani doubles duo, their previous wins allowed them to qualify to the semi-finals.
The Syrian team that Sri Lanka will face, consisting of Rabee Sleem and Mohamed Naw, almost effortlessly won all three of their matches against their Pakistani opponents. Being the team ranked second for this tournament, the Syrians will pose a tough challenge for Sri Lanka to progress further in the tournament.
Favourites for the boys’ tournament, Kazakhstan will go up against Turkmenistan in the other semifinal. To qualify for this round, both countries won 2-1 against their opposing teams Singapore and Oman.
Sri Lanka’s girls’ team which includes of Anika Seneviratne, who also a member of the team that recently won the Asia/Oceania Pre Qualifying tournament, will be up for a very tight fight when they face the favourites of the tournament, Singapore. In their quarter final round, the first Women’s singles match played between Seneviratne and Ghaoui Dit Ebef Yasmeen of Lebanon was won by the Sri Lankan, 6-2 4-6 6-3. Unfortunately, Gunawardena lost her singles match against Gaelle Abdo Bou, 2-6 1-6, making the next match, the doubles – the decision-maker for the two countries. This nail-biting match was ultimately won by Seneviratne and Gunawardene, 3-6 6-4 [10-4] giving Sri Lanka a score line of 2-0 and a pass to the next round.
Sri Lanka will face Kei Ashley Yim and Shi Yi Seah of Singapore in the singles of the next round. Both Yim and Seah triumphed over their Nepalese opponents, 6-2 6-2 and 3-6 6-1 6-0, respectively, in yesterday’s games. Yim paired up with Hui Maxine Ng for the doubles but failed to win the match.
The second semifinal will be between no. 3 Kyrgyzstan and the Philippines. Both teams have played brilliant games and won all their matches in the pre quarters. Philippines won 3-0 against Oman and Kyrgyzstan also won 3-0 against Turkmenistan.
The winners of the semifinals will play the final tomorrow.
