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Junior ITF tournament to be hosted in Colombo
By Shamseer Jaleel
SRI LANKA’ juniors will face stiff challenges from a host of overseas players at the two back-to-back International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior Circuit tournaments to be held at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) Courts in Green Path this month.

The first of the two events, both carrying ITF world ranking points, will be held from October 3-9 and the second, October 10-16.

Fifteen Sri Lankans questing for honours will encounter challenges from a huge field of 50 foreign players from ten countries. India, with 30 players, presents the biggest field, followed by Chinese-Taipei who has 15 participants. Korea will be represented by seven; Russia has two players while Singapore, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Belgium and Denmark will field a player each.

Heading the girls challenge for Sri Lanka will be 14-year-old National champion Jithmie Jayawickreama, SSC-CitiBank champion Nilupul Gunasekera, Amritha Muttiah, Dinali de Silva and Drunvinka Moraes.

Thomian Nishendran Sivenderan heads the local boys challenge. Others in the fray are Dinusha Wijesuriya, Kohula Ravindrakumar, Meshel Sinnen, Udith Wickramasinghe and Chavi Thalagala.

Sri Lankans have won ITF Junior Singles titles previously. Amirt Rupasinghe won the Boys title in 2002 in Colombo while current no.1, Harshana Godamanna also won the Boys title in 2002 in Rawalpindi, the first Lankan junior to win a major title overseas.

This will be the largest ever foreign participation and shows the growing reputation of the tournament conducted on behalf of the ITF. With our juniors will be the main beneficiaries by way of the experience which would be gained on home courts, an experience which otherwise they would have to go overseas to achieve.

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