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The Sri Lanka Tennis Association will stage its 20th successive International Junior Tennis Championship from Feb 10 to 16 on the National Tennis Courts at Green Path.

The annual event, first staged in 1983, is an ITF recognized tournament, which means it counts for world ranking points. Consequently, the tournament has attracted entries from far as the USA and Australia as well as Chinese Taipei, Singapore, Thailand, Ukraine, Uzbhekistan, Maldives and India. The boys' singles has attracted 55 players, including 23 Sri Lankans, while the girls' event has 32 entries, 10 from Sri Lanka. The main draw will have 32 players.

In hosting the tournament the SLTA has taken maximum advantage by fielding a full compliment of players. "We have not only included our top players, but also the emerging ones so that they too get the feel of competition at the highest level," says Suresh Subramaniam, president of the SLTA, "To be a champion experience is indispensable and it is SLTA police to give as much international exposure as possible".

Out of the accepted list in the boys' event 10 Sri Lankans and 14 foreign participants are in the Main draw. The balance 29 will enter qualifying rounds to fight for the 4 places allocated in the main draw and there are 4 wild card entries to complete the main draw of 32. The qualifying rounds were held on Feb 8 and 9 at the SLTA. The girls' singles has 32 entries and so will not require a qualifying round.

Two overseas boys' players to be taken note are India's Chatwinder Singh and Japan's Isubra Morizane. The Indian, 96th in the ITF world junior rankings, will be the highest ranked player on show while the Japanese, ranked 280th, is next best. Sri Lankans Harshana Godamanne (311th) and Amrith Rupasinghe (386th) are to be seeded by virtue of having the third and fifth best respectively in the lineup.

Among the other top Sri Lankan juniors in the fray are, national champion Franklyn Emmanuel and Oshada Wijemanne, who won the ITF under 18 singles title in Pakistan last year, as did Rupasinghe in the ITF under 18 tournament in Colombo.

India's Marutha Devi, 256 in the ITF junior world rankings, heads the girls' field, followed by Kate Polunina of Ukraine (364th). Sri Lankans Jancy Paramanathan (567th), Nawchali de Silva (802nd) and Mahesha Seneviratne (994th) have the eighth, ninth and tenth best ranking respectively in the lineup, but with the advantage of playing in home conditions, the trio are expected to make better impressions than their rankings would suggest.

"We concluded the ITF under 14 South Asian Tournament last Wednesday and this tournament will be only the second of the eight internationals the SLTA will be hosting this year. We are getting valuable experience before staging the bigger events like the Davis Cup and the three $10,000 tournaments," says SLTA CEO Boshan Dayaratne.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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