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| Sunday, 1 September 2002 |
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Eighteen foreigners for Sri Lanka Junior International Tennis Tourney by LAL GUNESEKERA Eighteen top juniors (both boys and girls) from five countries have already confirmed their participation at the Sri Lanka Junior (under-18) International Tennis Championship to be worked off at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Greenpath from September 9 to 15. This is a Group V tournament of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) for junior world ranking purposes. A spokesman for the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) told the Sunday Observer that India will be sending two boys and two girls, Maldive Islands four boys, Thailand three girls, China two girls and Chinese Taipei four boys and one girl. Spain too, has sent an entry of one boy, but this has to be confirmed by the Spanish Tennis authorities. He also disclosed that Sri Lanka's cream of young talent is also expected to figure in two ITF Junior ranking tournaments in Maharashtra from September 16 to 21 and the other in New Delhi from September 23 to 28. He said that both these events are in Group IV under-18, but Franklyn Emmanual (the youngest to win the National singles title earlier this month) and Amrith Rupasinghe are not playing as they are in training for the Asian Games to be staged in Busan, South Korea to be held from Sept 29 to October 10. However, N. S. Nishendran, Oshada Wijemanne and Harshana Godamanna will be sent to India and also for a similar tournament in Pakistan which is to be held during the Asian Games. Three girls too are being ear-marked for these two tournaments. They are Mahesha Seneviratne, Jancy Paramanathan and Nawchali de Silva. There is also an ITF Junior (under-18) tournament scheduled to be staged in Dubai from October 22 to 26 where both Franklyn Emmanual and Amrith Rupasinghe will be available to play. He further said that the Junior (under-16) Davis Cup, which was earlier known as the World Youth Cup, will be staged in Sri Lanka also at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Greenpath in May/June next year (2003) which will be the qualifying rounds from the Asia/Oceania Zone. Sixteen countries are due to play in four groups. This year (2002) the tournament was held in Malaysia and won by Australia with Sri Lanka finishing in eighth position out of the 16 countries. |
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