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by DINESH WEERAWANSA

Sri Lanka's teenage stars stormed into the quarter finals at the 20th International Tennis Federation Junior Championship continued at the National Tennis Centre courts, Greenpath in Colombo yesterday.

The host nation's top four junior players defeated their respective foreign opponents to make it to the last eight of the Boys' singles event. The tournament, hosted by the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) on be half of the ITF, will be played at the National Tennis Centre courts, Greenpath in Colombo until February 16.

After unseeded Franklyn Emmanuel upset fifth seed Jitin Bishnoi, of India, it was the turn of unseeded Oshada Wijemanne to provide the surprise of yesterday. The Stafford International student put out the sixth seed Japanese, Ryo Sekiguchi, 7/5, 6/3, in about two hours. Wijemanne's quarterfinal opponent will be teammate and third seed Harshana Godamanne, who was subject to a long and dour battle with Indian Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan.

Though Godamanne won in straight sets, both sets were decided by tiebreakers, 7/6(4), 7/6(4).

The winner of the Godamanne v. Wijemanne quarterfinal is likely to meet the top seed, Chatwinder Singh, of India, a 6/0,6/1 winner over compatriot Mangal Sriram. Singh's quarterfinal opponent will be unseeded German Victor Schmid, who defeated Sri Lankan Chathuranga Vidanarachchi, 6/2,7/6(3) yesterday. In the bottom half too one quarterfinal will be an all-Lanka affair with Royalist Emmanuel confronting S.Thomas' Kollupitiya's Amrit Rupasinghe.

Emmanuel was a 6/1,6/3 winner over Taiwan's Chin-Yu Huang while fourth seed Rupasinghe whipped unseeded Indian Sendhur Gautham, 6/2,6/0.

Bottom seed Tsubasa Morizane of Japan overcame unseeded 13-year-old Indian, Arnav Jain, 6/1, 7/5, and meets seventh seed Sumit Gupta in the quarterfinals. Two of the top boys players in the competition are Indian Chatwinder Singh and Japanese Isubara Morizane. The Indian, 96th in the ITF world junior rankings, will be the highest ranked player on show in Colombo 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.

The Lankan girls, however, did not come out with the same form as their boys team. Only the big-hitting Nawachali de Silva and Vindya Dayananda advanced to the quarterfinals of the Girls' Singles. Dayananda humbled fifth seed Singaporean Wei Ping Lee 6/7(4)6/0,6/3. She will now meet bottom seed Vandana Murali of India, who had a 6/4,3/6,6/1 win over team mate Bhavani Tirumurti, in the quarters. Seventh seed de Silva prevailed over compatriot Thiyumi Abeysinghe, 7/5, 6/1, and will meet the top seed Marutha Devi, of India, in today's quarterfinal.

Sixth seed Jancy Paramanathan of Holy Family Convent was upset by unseeded Shweta Kakhandki of India, 6/2,6/4 while third seed I-Hsuan Hwang of Taiwan proved too good for Bishops College's Mahesha Seneviratne, winning 6/0,6/2.

A total of 87 top youngsters, including 33 Sri Lankans, are taking part in the week-long tournament.

The boys' singles has attracted 55 players, including 23 from the hosts Sri Lanka, while the girls singles has 32 entries, including ten Lankan girls. The main draw will accommodate only 32 players.

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