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| Friday, 20 February 2004 |
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Amitha gives Lanka fresh hopes By Dinesh Weerawansa Fourteen-year-old Amitha Arudpragasam gave hosts Sri Lanka fresh hopes in Girls singles too after the success of local boys on day four of the 21st ITF Junior International Tennis tournament, continued at the National Tennis Centre courts yesterday. Following the impressive form shown by N.S. Nishendran, Amrit Rupesinghe and Chaturanga Vidanarachchi in the boys event and Mahesha Seneviratne in the girls event, young Arudpragasam kept the home team's hopes alive with a sensational win. Arudpragasam survived some anxious moments in the first set of her tie against Indian Janaki Rao, but came back strongly win the second set in style. The fourth seed became only the second Sri Lankan girl to book a place in the quarter-finals. She won a hotly contested first, not before the Indian stretched her fully in a tiebreaker. But the Lankan took the second with less effort to topple Rao 7-6 (1), 6-4. She joins her team mate and Bishop College student Mahesha Senevirathne in today's quarter finals. In today's 'quarters', Seneviratne will play South Korean Jung Yoon Shin while Arudpragasam will take on Manami Hirata, who scored a surprise 6/4, 6/2 win over sixth seed Varsha Shivashankar of India. Kollupitiya St. Thomas Prep schoolboy Amrit Rupasinghe, need not to put too much of effort to have the better of unseeded Shimpachiro Ikeno 6-2, 6-3 of Japan. The Lankan third seed now advances to the quarter finals. Top seed Nishendran Sivendran of Sri Lanka had earlier qualified for a quarterfinal meeting today with Japan's Kazuya Ono, who caused a minor shock in the first round when he overcame seventh seed Thai Peerapach Tupwong, 6-3, 6-1. Rupasinghe's quarterfinal opponent will be Korean Ju Yeong Im, a fortunate winner over eight seed Indian Kinshuk Sharma. Hampered by a hand injury, the Indian lost the first set and then threw in the towel. Sri Lanka was also well represented in the Boys Doubles event. Figuring in the boys doubles quarterfinals are Nishendran Sivendran and his Indian partner,Karthik Raju, the top seeds, while Amrith Rupasinghe and Kaushika Raju of India, and the two all-Sri Lankan pair of Chaturanga Vidanaarachchi/ Dinusha Wijesuriya and Rukmal Cooray/Kishan Sudusinghe. In the Girls' doubles Sri Lanka did exceptionally to figure in two semifinals, but failed to clinch a place in the final. The top seed pair of Indian Asha Nandakumar and Korean Jung Yoon Shin defeated Dinali de Silva and her Indian partner Surabhi Varma, 6/1, 6/1 in the first semi final. In the other semifinal, Thavindra Ekanayake and Japanese Risa Hasegawa went down to top seed Indians Shivika Burman and Sanjana Kapur, 7-6 (3), 6-4. |
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