Guyanga battles through to the final

RICHARD Dwight

The International Tennis Federation junior championship reaches its penultimate day, today and concludes tomorrow at the SSC courts.

In yesterday's boys singles semi final match between the physically stout, Ryoto Tachi of Japan seeded No. 1 for this tournament and Sri Lanka's lanky, Guyanga Weerasekera seeded No. 3 - the wiry Guyanga though tiring at times held his own brilliantly to get the better of Tachi to win through to the finals. Both players gave as much as they got, in a dour, ding dong battle, where each matched the other stroke for stroke and point for point, the first set ended 6/4 in Guyanga's favour and the second set was long drawn out, which saw much rallies it was hard fought right through where at decisive moments Guyanga passed Tachi to gain the initiative, whilst Tachi at crucial stages hit the net for Guyanga to take the set at 7/5 and win the match. In the other semi finals between Thailand's P. Sornjaratsuwan and Sri Lanka's Amresh Jayawickrema a 3 setter, Sornjaratsuwan won 6/4, 6/7, 6/2.

In the girls' singles Sri Lanka's Jithmie Jayawickreme and Japan's Kana Higashihara, Kanami Tsuji and Yoko Nagai have entered the semi-finals.

Girls doubles results (quarter finals): J. Jayawickreme and A. Muthiah (SL) bt K. Higashihara and T. Kusube (Jap) 6/3, 6/4.

Y. Nagai and E. Okazaki (Jap) bt D. Madugalle (SL) and S. Vasupongchai (Thai) 6/2, 6/1.

A. Bhatta (Ind) and K. Herath (SL) bt N. Fernando (SL) and S. Wijesinghe (SL) 6/3, 6/3.

E. Fukukawa and K. Tsuji (Jap) bt R. Roshenka (SL) and S. Sherif (Can) 6/1, 6/0.

Boys quarter finals doubles: R. Kishi and R. Tachi (Jap) bt A. Goghari (Ind) and M. Shaakir (SL) 6/2, 6/1.

N. Luesantia and T. Suwanasang (Thai) bt R. Casagrande (Thai) and A. de Silva (SL) 6/2, 6/4.

H. Bava and S. T. Paladugu (Ind) bt P. Kaewwongwattna (Thai) and M. Nakamura (Jap) 6/3, 6/1.

A. Jayawickrema and D. Thangarajah (SL) bt S. Manjanna and V. Savadai (Ind) 6/2, 6/3.