Tennis prodigy Adithya achieves Asia’s number one spot
View(s):Twelve-year-old Adithya Karunaratne is another Lankan tennis prodigy is going from strength to strength. She is performing extremely well in the Under-14 ranking tournaments conducted by Asian Tennis Federation this year which culminated in her, earning the Asian Number 1 ranking in her age group.
There is no doubt that Adithya’s remarkable achievement is something special and also has the honour of being the first-ever Sri Lankan at any level to become the top ranking player in the Asian region. In fact Adithya is one of the youngest ever to reach the Number 1 spot at the of age 12 plus.
The young girl ended the year 2014 on a high note after she began the year with flying colours by winning back-to-back ranking tournaments held in Doha, Qatar in the early part of the year.
Adithya receiving her trophy at ATF Junior tournament in Qatar
Since then she has been like a busy bee moving in the circuit in destinations such as the USA, Bangladesh and Thailand which ended with the second Under-14 Asian Tournament at Qatar in late November.
The stint in USA in June and July lasting 40 days saw her winning four US ranking tournament titles — the Southern California Summer Junior Open U-14 singles and doubles titles and then followed it up being U-14 singles runner-up and U-16 doubles winner at the Lakewood Junior Open.
Adithya ended up as semi-finalist in the U-16 singles and U-14 doubles at the 24th Annual Tennis Club Open before winding up the USA campaign by winning the U-14 singles title and runner-up in the doubles at the 20th Annual Costa Mesa Junior Classic Open. Two months later in September Adithya taking part in the Bangladesh Asian Junior Tennis tournament succeeded in bagging the singles and doubles titles.
Thailand was her next destination in October, where according to her father Lloyd, she displayed a very strong performance against top opponents in the like of Russia’s Diana Lukyanova.
In this ATF tournament she overcame Thailand’s Number 1 ranked player in Mananchaya Swangkaew whom she beat in the final 6/3 and 6/2 to become the champion.
Thailand is known to be way ahead and one of the strongest tennis-playing nations in Asia and also this is the first time in island’s tennis history that a Sri Lankan at any level has achieved this feat.
Adithya’s successful 2014 campaign ended in November in Doha, Qatar where she participated in the Asian Junior Tennis Championship which is supposed to be the highest grade ATF tournament with the winner earning the highest number of ranking points.
She ended the tournament in style and being the defending champion, brushed aside stiff resistance from Kazakhstan’s Number 1 ranked player Assel Tuzelbekova in the semi-final and then toppled China’s Xuanin Li in the final in a cliff hanger to emerge champion.
Benny Lin, one of the few Level III tennis coaches around the globe has been the man behind Adithya’s success. Top coach Lin in an email interview stated that “All her hard work, sacrifices and commitment have borne fruit.”
“Her goal of achieving the junior Asian Number 1 has been fulfilled and as mentioned earlier she has exceeded my expectations and there is no doubt that she has a very bright future.”
Elaborating further Lin stated that though she can compete in U-14 tournaments next year. “The focus for the future would be to participate in U18 ITF tour for world ranking. My first aim is to see that Adithya is among the top 100 ITF before she is 16 years.”
“Of course this is going to be tough but I have the confidence that Adithya will take up the challenge. She is a girl with immense will-power added to the dedication she puts in.”
Adithya’s full time coach on tour Bhagat Singh says: “It’s a superb achievement by Adithya to get to the Asian U-14 Number 1 slot and said that the ATF tournaments in which she participated this year saw her ending with 2193 points. “At the completion of the first tournament in Doha, Qatar she had accumulated 1113 points and now she has taken a strong lead of 1143 points against the ranked Number 2 South Korean player Park Sohyun.”
Bhaghat added that since he took up coaching he has travelled with many top players but Adithya’s come back win in Qatar last month was something extra-ordinary.
“It was the most exciting three-set thriller that I have ever seen, she saved three match points in the second set and took the third set with ease against a very strong and full time Chinese player. It was an amazing come back that cannot be expected from a 12-year-old girl.
Adithya’s parents, Lloyd and Gothami also commended her performance stating she has missed about 50 schools days due to her traveling for tennis tournaments. Still she was awarded with an academic excellence award and academic effort award in school.
Adithya spoke with confidence to questions posed on an e-mail interview.
Q: With school, practices and tournaments, how do you manage your time and stay on top of everything?
I have the habit of following a timetable to ensure that all my priorities are met. During my travel for tournaments, I am grateful to my teachers and friends for their guidance and assistance to accomplish the work I may have missed.
Besides, during the tournament, I manage to find time to complete all the due assignments. Apart from striving to do my best academically, I believe it is equally important to be an all round and well-balanced person, which is why I love to involve myself in guitar (doing ABRSM Grade 8 exam), piano and art during the weekends.
Q:Tell us something about the support you receive from your family?
I have a very busy family. My sister, Yasodara is a medical student in the University of Washington. My mother is a director of GAP Inc and my father is busy with his business, however they are always there for me through thick and thin.
They have sacrificed so much for me in every possible way. Last but not least, I want to thank my coaches, my family and SLTA officials, Zarina Saleem, Udith Wickramasinghe, Rohan de Silva, Shalini de Silva who was my first coach.
- MSA