Savini Jayasuriya and Janali Manamperi kick started the third week of the ITF 18 & Under junior Tennis Circuit with a bang, proceeding in both the Singles and Doubles events.
Read: Anjalika and Nelaka through to pre-quarters
The tournament is an annual gathering across three weeks of intense action, attracting talent from across the globe. In the third and final week, Jayasuriya and Manamperi had a stellar start to the tournament, registering wins in the Girls singles main draw and later pairing up in the doubles to proceed through to the quarterfinals.
Girls Singles
Four girls represented Sri Lanka in the Girls Singles event in week 3, out of which, Oneli Perera and Nathasha Munaweera had early exists in the first round. Savini Jayasuriya was up against Harivarshine Murugesan of India; Jayasuriya, who ran a tight ship from the start, sealed the deal in straight sets 6/3, 6/3.
Janali Manamperi also faced an Indian counterpart in her first-round match, Hetvee Chaudhari. The first set was closely fought and reached a tie breaker. Manamperi was quick to reach the line of 7 points, taking the first set 7/6(2).
With momentum on her side, the Lankan wasted no time to finish off the match in style with a thrashing 6/2 in the second set. Both Jayasuriya and Manamperi will move on to the pre-quarterfinals as the lone survivors from the draw.
Read: Savini topples top seed to clinch Junior National crown
Girls Doubles
The pair teamed up in the Doubles event as one of the two Sri Lankan pairings in the main draw. The other pair was Oneli Perera and Nathasha Munaweera. Savini and Janali performed admirably to knock Harivarshine Murugesan and Sri Sanchana Sampath out in the first round. Final scores read 6/3, 6/1.
They will move on to the quarter-final round of the tournament, but will have a tough clash next, as they go up against the top seeds of the tournament from Chinese Taipei, Yu Hua Cheng and Chia Yi Tsao.
Meanwhile, Oneli Perera and Nathasha Munaweera had to face more bad news, with their disappointing stint in the doubles event. The duo lost 6/4, 6/4 to the Indian pair of Tanvikhaa Saravanan and Adithi Venkatakrishnan.
The Sri Lankan Juniors were not so fortunate in the past two weeks of the tournament, with youngsters such as Anika Seneviratne, Kaveesha Ratnayake and Oneli Perera being knocked out in the first rounds of their respective events.
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