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Ratnapura served notice of its ambitions to become one of Sri Lanka's top tennis districts when it won the SLTA's first ever Mirinda All-Island Mini-Tennis Tournament held last weekend at Green Path.

The event, the first since the mini-tennis program was launched in 1997, pitted the best players from the program's seven regions Colombo, Bandarawela, Kandy, Batticaloa, Negombo, Panadura and Ratnapura after qualifying for selection through tournaments at the school and regional levels. Players finishing at the top of the regional tournaments were chosen to represent their respective districts in the All-Island tournament. The inaugural tournament is aimed at raising the profile of the popular Mirinda mini-tennis program to a higher level as the SLTA continues its drive to expand the player-base into the provinces.

Colombo were fancied to win the titles, but were surprisingly upstaged by Ratnapura players who took title honours in both the Boys and Girls championships. "Ratnapura's success is creditable, as they don't have anything like the facilities Colombo has. So the reasons for their success has to be the tremendous enthusiasm of their youngsters and the commitment of coach Seevali Wickremarachchi," said K. D. Y. Pathiraja, National Co-ordinator of the mini-tennis program.

"If the enthusiasm and commitment is maintained there's reason to believe Ratnapura can be developed into a nursery of future champions."

In the round-robin segment of the Boys' championship, Ratnapura finished second to Batticaloa in Group A to qualify for the semi-finals. The Group B semi-final qualifiers were Colombo and Negombo. In the best of seven semi-finals, Ratnapura defeated Colombo 4 matches to 2 while Batticaloa overcame

Negombo 4/0. In the finals Ratnapura beat Batticaloa, 4 matches to 2, avenging their defeat in the Group match. In the third-place play-off, Colombo beat Negombo 4/0.

Ratnapura won the Girls championship more comprehensively than their boy's team. They went through the entire tournament undefeated, beating Colombo and Negombo in the round-robin matches, Kandy, 4/2 in the semi-finals and Colombo for a second time in the final, 4 matches to 2. Kandy took third place by overcoming Batticaloa, 4/1.

The champion boys' team comprised S. T. Nandasena, S. Nelundeniya, T. Dhanushka, C. Sandeepa, A. K. B. Wanasundera, M. Nanayakkara, M. Wickremasinghe, S. Sampath, K. T. Dhammerachchi, S. K. Daniel, T. H. Adihetty and I. P. Jayasuriya.

Girls team: D. T. Samson, B. N. Weerakkody, N. G. Jayatilleke, Y. R. Dissanayake, I. Wickremasinghe, D. Wickremasinghe, T. Pieris, C. N. Vithane, K. A. G . Wathsala, C. L. Dissanayake, P. A. Chandrasiri, Y. D. P. N. Dissanayake.

Coach: Seevali Wickremarachchi. The chief guest was Ashok Swarup, Country Manager of Pepsi International Ltd.

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