ITF junior tennis tournament:

India’s juniors impress to forge ahead

Richard Dwight

In the ITF under 18 junior tennis tournament, the first of which began on Monday and is in progress at the SLTA courts - found the Indians both boys and girls giving a good account of themselves to be in the reckoning for major honours.

Amongst the boys India’s Sidharth Sivakumar with ITF rank 362 is the highest ranked player in the ongoing tournament and as expected has done well to win through the 2nd round and the quarter finals.

Equally impressive has been Sri Lanka’s T. Dineshkanthan who has got past the second round and quarter finals and is likely to do well in the clashes ahead.

The other Indian who can hold his own is A. Alla. The two Koreans H. Woo and K. Jang along with the German, D. Rennhak have made quite an impression. Amongst the girls, India’s Zainab Ali Sajjad ITF ranked 401 is the top seed while Sri Lanka’s Amreetha Muttiah ITF ranked 661 is the bottom seed. Both have done well thus far and much is expected of them.

The tournament continues today at the SLTA and concludes on Saturday.

Results:

Boys singles 2nd round : S. Sivakumar (Ind) beat A. Dep (SL) 6/4, 6/3, S. H. Yoon (Korea) beat M. Mohamed (Ind) 6/4, 6/2, D.Rennhak (Germany) beat R. Ananda (Ind) 6/4, 6/0, A. Maipradit (Thai) beat J. Jayawickreme 6/4, 6/1, J. N. Tao (China) beat S. Alamdar (Thai) 6/2, 6/1, R. Maheswari (Ind) beat M. Shaakir (SL) 6/2, 6/2, S. Gomesz (SL) beat R. Agarwal (Ind) 7/5, 6/2, C. H. Woo (Kor) beat N. M. Shamsi (Pak) 6/1, 6/1, S. Paladugu (Ind) beat Y. Dewage (SL) 6/0, 6/4, K. Jang (Kor) beat J. Nalamphun 6/1, 7/5, C. Tanasugarn (Thai) beat V. Jinan (Ind) 6/1, 2/6, 6/2, T. Dineshkanthan (SL) beat S. Vijayra Jeshwaran (Ind) 6/0, 6/2, A. Alla (Ind) beat R. Somroop (Thai) 6/0, 6/3, V. de Alwis (SL) beat D. Gopinath 6/2, 6/3, V. Ramesh (Ind) beat T. Eshwarage (SL) 6/1, 6/3, Z. Cao (China) beat S. Vietla (Ind) 6/4, 6/2.

Boys singles quarter finals: S. Sivakumar (Ind) beat S. H. Yoon (Kor) 6/1, 6/3, D. Rennhak (Ger) beat A. Mairradit (Thai) 6/3, 6/2, S. H. Woo (Kor) beat S. Gomesz (SL) 6/3, 6/0, K. Jang (Kor) beat S. Paladugu (Ind) 6/2, 6/4, T. Dineshkanthan (SL) beat C. Tanasguran (Thai) 6/4, 6/4, A. Alla (Ind) beat V. de Alwis (SL) 6/2, 4/6, 6/4.

Girls singles 2nd round: R. Roshenka (SL) beat S. Sree Hari 6/3, 6/3, S. Thayakaran (SL) beat S. Manoj Kumar (Ind) 6/2, 7/6, S. Qin (China) beat D. S. Agarwal (Ind) 6/0, 6/0, S. Shivalingam (Ind) beat S. Gosh (Mri) 7/6, 6/3, T. Gandhi (USA) beat B. Kaur (Ind) 2/6, 7/6, 7/5, A. Amol Warrick (Ind) beat K. Herath (SL) 2/6, 6/4, 6/1, Y. Wang (China) beat P. Kaur (Ind) 6/0, 6/1, D. Mandava (Ind) beat N. Fernando (SL) 6/3, 6/2, P. J. Orjeza (Philip) beat N. Ruangsumrej 6/0, 6/1, R. Wang (China) beat P. Krishnaraj (Ind) 6/2, 6/3, A. Muttiah (SL) beat A. Razvi (Ind) 6/0, 6/1, S. G. Abhinaya (Ind) beat S. Wijesinghe (SL) 6/1, 3/6, 6/0, T. Kotuwattegedara (SL) beat D. Muralidharan (Ind) 6/1, 6/0, N. R. Babu Raj (Ind) beat M. Alla (USA) 5/7, 7/5, 5/0.

Girls singles quarter finals: Z Ali Sajjad (Ind) bet R. Roshenka (SL) 6/2, 7/5, A. Warrick (Ind) beat Wang Yan (China) 6/1, 6/0, T. Kottuwattegedara (SL) beat S. G. Abhinaya (Ind) 4/6, 6/1, 6/3.