Tennis Junior Nationals – Anika Seneviratne takes major honours

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Tennis Junior Nationals

The Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) courts witnessed some skilful tennis on the first three days of the 101st Junior and Senior Tennis National Tournament.

Over thirty matches were worked off since the tournament began on the 5th of August, but the U.18 matches of both the boys’ and girls’ categories were the highlights of the show.

Anika Seneviratne, who is seeded no. 1 in the under 18 age group easily won her matches played against  Prabudhi Perera 6-3, 6-3 and Nathasha Munaweera 6-2, 6-4 to reserve her place in the semi-finals where she will meet no. 3 seeded Janali Manamperi. Manamperi will not be easy competition as she has been displaying incredible skill in all her games so far. She won her first round match against Sathi Silva with the score 6-1, 6-2 and beat Isuni Dharmasiriwardene in the quarter final 6-1, 6-2. Second-seeded Tara Greig won her match against Anya Gunawardena 6-4, 6-4 and will see Medhira Samarasinghe in the semi-finals. Samarasinghe has also been tough competition to her opponents defeating both Seranya Karunaratne and Ochithya Fernando 6-0, 6-0.Avindra Perera will see Vibuda Wijebandara,  Udayachandran Srinath will face Ramith Jayanetti, Vikum Jayasuriya will see Archana Lokuge and Manal Algama will face Aadavan Pushparaj in the quarter finals of the boys’ under 18 singles which will be played today. Top seeded Perera and Pushparaj beat their opponents Nadil Silva and Dulitha Ellawala scoring 6-0, 6-0 and 6-2, 6-1 respectively. Wijebandara entered the quarter final round in a close competition against Viranka Fernando 6-7(5)6-3 6-1. Jayanetti beat Kavindu Diluka 6-0 6-1, Jayasuriya beat Sean Sanderson  6-4 6-1 and Algama beat Praneel Jayasinghe 6-0 6-3 to reserve their place in the next round while No. 3 seeded Lokuge beat Kithmin de Silva 6-3, 6-2.

The matches played till the 12th of August will be the Junior National matches and the Senior Nationals will commence henceforth. Of the close to forty matches that will be played today, star player Anjalika Kurera’s Girls’ under 12 singles match against Sakithma Silva, Manamperi’s Under 16 singles match against Denuli Jayakody and Avindra Perera’s under 18 singles match with Wijebandara are expected to be exceptionally competitive.