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| Sunday, 28 April 2002 |
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Sri Lanka protests to ITF over seeding for World Junior Tourney by LAL GUNESEKERA Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) has protested to the International Tennis Federation (ITF) requesting for a higher seeding for the World Junior Boys (under-14) Championship (Asia/Oceania qualifying) to be staged at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Greenpath from Tuesday (April 30) to May 6. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the SLTA, Boshan Dayaratne, told the Sunday Observer that this was the first occasion that Sri Lanka has been seeded. They are seeded No. 6. The protest for higher seeding comes in the wake of Franklyn Emmanuel who was a member of ITF "travelling team" and won the singles at the South and Central Asian Junior Championship in Indonesia recently. He also won the mixed doubles with another player, while N. S. Nishendran was placed third. Both Emmanual and Nishendran also won two doubles titles in Delhi also at a Junior Championship. Sri Lanka were 10th out of 15 countries at last year's World Junior Championship staged in Colombo which was worked off on a knock-out basis, but this year, it is staged on a round-robin basis and Sri Lanka are tipped to finish within the top three. The top four sides qualify for the finals to be staged in the Czech Republic from August 12 to 17. Forty-five players from 15 countries, including Sri Lanka, will vie for honours. The other countries participating are Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Syria, Thailand and Uzbekistan. Seeded No. 1 is South Korea, followed by China (No. 2), Australia (No. 3), Japan (No. 4), India (No. 5) and Sri Lanka (No. 6). Trans Asia Hotel is the official hotel for all players, while the "side" sponsors of the Sri Lanka team are Miranda, Bernards and Idach. Three players will represent each country. Sri Lanka will be represented by Franklyn Emmanual, N. S. Nishendran and Udith Wickremasinghe with Roshan Razick as the non-playing captain. |
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