Thirteen-year-old Adithya Karunaratne went in the record books becoming the youngest person to win a ITF Junior week 1 Girls title when she defeated Angela Raman of India 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-0 in the final held at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association courts last week.
The thirteen year old and junior champion Nethmi Waduge were the only two players who were able to progress on to the quarterfinals out of the seven Lankan representations and Waduge did not have the luck to go ahead falling short to Ai Qi Chen of China. Karunaratne was the highlight of the first week from the beginning when she defeated the reigning top seed in Asia Ting-Ching Wei to advance on to the quarterfinals. Moving onto the quarterfinals she faced the experienced Sabrina Woll and later Demi Tran to progress to the final.
Being one of the youngest in the draw, Karunaratne was just one win away to become the champion in the week 1 and was matched up with Angela Raman from India. The second top seeded player went on to win the first set 7-6(4) after moving into break points but Adithya fought back in the next two sets to win the game decisively. With this win, young Adithya will see her ITF international rank improving and currently is in the quarterfinal stage in the second week.
The second week of the ITF Junior Circuit will be worked off at the SSC Clay courts and Karunaratne will be facing the top seed Ting-Ching Wei in the quarterfinal. Karunaratne earlier defeated Wei and it would be tough this time around with Wei on the lookout for revenge.
Her achievement was the only success story that Sri Lanka had in store with none of the Lankans making it to even the final stages. Ondrej Styler of Czech Republic won the Boys week 1 title and the Hung Minh Huynh-David Marshall pair walked away with the Boys Double title.
The second week of three week long ITF Junior Series continues at the Singhalese Sports Club courts and the finals are set to take place on Sunday 18th October 2015.
