Rain halts play on third day of Junior Tennis Nationals

Angu RAJENDRAN

Nethmi Waduge - the under 12 top seed has entered the semi-finals. Pix: Angu Rajendran

Roshenka Fernando under 18 girls top seed has won all her matches.

The Sri Lanka Tennis Association courts are buzzing with activity as the Junior Nationals are underway. Friday’s matches however were halted at 3 pm due to rain. The finals that were to be played on August 23 (Monday) will now be postponed. Only about twenty knockout matches were played on Friday mostly in the under 14 age groups.

A sterling performance by top seed Nethmi Waduge in the under 12 age group saw her through to the semi finals. The others who qualified for the semi finals in that age group are Melissa Jayawardene and Hsindhi Lokuge. The other qualifying match between Asalya Bandara and Rukshana Abdeen is yet to be played.

In the under 14 matches played on Friday the winners were Nishangan Nadaraja, Joshua Moraes, Sharmari Dissanayake, Aaqil Gaffoor, Saniv Mohankumar, Davishka Ranasinghe, Venuka Hulangamua, Eroo Samarasinghe, Joshua Jayaratne, Birendra Siriwardene, Chehan Fernando, Akila Vimukthi, Sandesh Mendis and Danushka Abeygunawardene.

The boys under 12 singles saw a major upset when second seed Sabri Nabeel was beaten by Akshanth Perera. Thisuri Molligoda - top seed under 14 girls has won all her matches and moves on to the third round.

The under 18 junior national champion of 2009 Dineshkanthan Thangaraja has moved on to the senior nationals and the junior nationals definitely will prove to be very exciting with number one seed Shehan Gomesz, last year’s finalist Amresh Jayawickrama and new entrant Vimuktha de Alwis all playing in top form while Roshenka Fernando - under 18 girls top seed moves on to the third round after winning all her matches.

The next three days promise exciting tennis at the SLTA if the rain can hold out.