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| Wednesday, 11 February 2004 |
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Schoolboy Nishendran likely top seed by Dinesh Weerawansa Schoolboy N. S. Nishendran is likely to be the top seed at the forthcoming 21st ITF Under 18 Junior Championship (Group 5) to be worked off at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) courts, Colombo. A total of 49 players from 16 countries will vie for honours in the Boys with Indian having a major portion of 16 entries. Besides India and the hosts Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Serbia and Australia will field players. The qualifying round of the Boys singles will be worked off from Saturday (13). Nishendran, the 16-year-old from S. Thomas Prep School, Kollupitiya is the highest ranked player competing for the Boys' Singles title and the organizers are set to rank him No.1 for the boys category. He is currently ranked 258th in the ITF rankings. The other highest rated boys player competing in the February 16-22 tournament is 263rd ranked Han Lee of Taiwan, who is the likely bottom seed. Nishendran's elevation is a consequence of his exceptional performance in the ITF Group 2 Championships in New Delhi last week. He won through to the last eight of the singles against a top class opposition, but failed to qualify for the semifinals. His schoolmate Amrit Rupasinghe could well secure the No.3 ranking for the boys tournament as he maintains an ITF ranking of 422. The fourth and fifth seeds are likely to be Indians Kartik Raju (466th) and Kaushi Raju (550th). Other Sri Lankans who figure in 32-player main draw are Chaturanga Widanarachchi and Rukmal Cooray of Asian IS, Royalists Sasitha Wickremasinghe, Udith Wickemasinghe & S Sabanandan , Peterite Kishan Sudusinghe and Anandian Dinusha Wijesuriya. The Girls' event has attracted 29 entries and will be worked off along with the main draw. The Indians are expected to be the top three seeds: Vandana Murali (ranked 196th), Asha Nandakumar (285) and Datla Tejaswimi (600). Leading the Sri Lankan challenge will be Amita Arudpragasam, semifinalist at the ITF under 14 Championships in Myanmar recently, whose 633rd ranking is expected to be the fifth seed, while Bishops College's Mahesha Seneviratne is likely to be nominated sixth seed. Other Sri Lankans in the fray: Visakha Vidyalaya girls Thiyumi Abeysinghe & Thavindra Ekanayake And Bishopians Dinali de Silva & Jithmi Jayawickrema. The forthcoming tournament will be the first of ten ITF tournaments the Sri Lanka Tennis Association will host this year. October will be the busiest month with the SLTA, under the direction of its energetic President Suresh Subramaniam, hosting as many as five events, including the US$10,000 Men's Futures Championship. |
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