Sports

International Women's tennis comes to Sri Lanka

For the first time in the history of Sri Lanka Tennis, the association has been given an opportunity to conduct a women's professional tournament in Sri Lanka which will get underway on Monday, August 18 and go on till August 23 at the SLTA tennis courts in Green Path. This is the sixth of nine ITF tournaments that the SLTA has been offered to host this year.

At stake will be a US $ 10,000 winners cheque offered by the main sponsor Jembo Cables. The president of the SLTA, Suresh Subramaniam extended his gratitude to Cahayadi Santoso and Jembo Cables for stepping forward for the second year to sponsor a major ITF tournament.

The tournament will feature two events, the singles with a main draw of 32 players and a doubles which will have a 16 pair main draw. Twenty one slots in the main draw of the singles have already been filled by ranked players nominated by the ITF.

Three have been set aside for wild card entries while the eight top finishers of the August 17-18 qualifying round will complete the competitors list for the main draw. Five Sri Lankan players have already entered for the qualifying round with the hope of winning a place in the main draw.

Thailand's Napaporn Tongsalee is expected to be accorded top seed status by virtue of her 309th world ranking, the highest to figure in Colombo. Ironically, she competes as a wild card entry.

"The Thai girl's decision to play here came after entries had closed. So she made an appeal to the ITF and was given a wild card. What this means is that only two wild card entries will now be available," said Shalini de Silva, the tournament directress.

The next highest ranked player is the Indian Rushmi Chakravarthi, 429th in the world. The lowest ranked is Australian Rebecca Turner at 1164. India with 13 players dominate the entry list which also includes players from Germany, Thailand, Chinese-Taipei, England, Czechoslovakia and Sri Lanka.

The event is the latest of the Women's ITF Asian circuit which will be followed by two tournaments to be held in Bangkok, Thailand. The tournaments are aimed at helping young and up and coming players to garner world ranking points and encourage them to play in the big league.

Due to the success of the ITF tournaments held in the early part of the year. The ITF has the confidence and faith in the organizing skills of the SLTA in awarding the right to host the $10,000 women's professional tournament. Of course the ITF are pleased with our progress and full credit must be given to our band of dedicated officials, said the happy SLTA president, Suresh Subramaniam.-MSA