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by Lal Gunasekera

For the first time in the history of Sri Lanka's tennis, two players won a foreign national title overseas. This was achieved by the country's No. 1 Franklyn Emmanuel and N.S. Nishanderan (No. 2) at the DSCL Indian Junior National Tennis Championships at Delhi. They won the under-14 doubles title beating top seeds Sumit Gupta of Uttar Pradesh and Hrishkesh Pataskar of Maharastra in the final in straight sets (6-4, 6-4).

Both Emmanuel and Nishendran also reached the semi-finals of the under-14 singles. The former beat No. 7 seed Vivek Shokeen 7-5, 6-3 in the pre quarter-finals, No. 2 seed Saxam Singh in the quarters 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, but lost to Vishen Varadan 5-7, 2-6 in the 'semis'. Nishendran, on the other hand, beat M. Jeevan 6-4, 6-4 in the pre quarter-finals, but went on to lose to Gupta 4-6, 1-6 in the 'semis.'

Then at an AITA under-14 ranking tournament in Chennai, Emmanuel, hit the top again by winning the singles title beating top seed Vinod, while at the South East Asian-Central Asian Junior Championships in Delhi in January-February this year (2002), he finished No. 4 and Nishendran No. 5 in the under-14 singles, while both combined effectively to win the under-14 doubles title.

On these performances, both Franklyn Emmanual and N.S. Nishendran became the first Sri Lankans to be selected for the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Tour Team which played in Indonesia in April where the former finished as No. 1 and the latter No. 2 in the under-14 singles. There was no doubles event due to rain.

The Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) has now decided to send both Emmanuel and Nishendran for at least two ITF Circuit tournaments in one of the Soviet Republics and India or Pakistan in July-August-September, while they are also among a squad of six players (four boys and two girls) who are to be sent to Spain for a period of one month in July together with a coach for a training program.

Emmanuel, who is a Grade 10 student of Royal College, commenced his tennis career only four years back when he was at St. Benedict's where he was first coached by Shanthilal Perera. Now at Royal, he has been coached by Sylvester Francis and also by Somanath Fernando, but comes under Indian Arul Amalnathan the head coach of the SLTA. He won the under-14 title at the Junior Nationals last year (2001), while also winning the under-14 and under-16 titles at the Robbialac Junior Championships and even reaching the semi-finals of the men's singles at the National Championships too last year (2001).

Nishendran aged 14 is a student of S. Thomas' Prep, Kollupitiya where he is in Grade 9. He started his tennis career when he was 6 years at the Women's International Club under the guidance of K. Subramaniam and later coached by Sudantha Soysa, but now coming under the wing of Amalnathan. It's interesting to note that Nishendran's grandfather Nagalingam died of a heart attack whilst playing at the Cosmopolitan SC in Dehiwala. Nishendran's father, Sivendran, was a good badminton player, who studied at Wesley.

In one unison, both Emmanuel and Nishendran said that they are keen to continue with their tennis and dream about playing on the professional circuit. However, a final decision on their future tennis careers will only be made after they sit for their GCE Ordinary Level Examination scheduled for 2004.

Emmanuel and Nishendran also helped Sri Lanka to finish 6th (they were 10th last year - 2001) at the recent World Junior Under-14 Championships (Asian qualifying) in Colombo. Sri Lanka who were seeded 6th, lost to Australia (seeded No. 3) 0-2, after beating Japan (seed No. 4) Malaysia, Uzbekistan and Thailand.

Arul Amalnathan, told (Indian coach) Sunday Observer that he has just completed one year of his two-year contract with the SLTA, and that there is plenty of talent available in Sri Lanka, but ambition wise its limited. He said "If the players got more tournaments overseas they could have fared much better. But now the SLTA is trying its best to send the juniors out more." He further said that he has changed the pattern of the coaching program a little bit so it has a wider base, and 'things are slowly falling into place and looking better now.' He said, "I am looking to stay longer than two years in Sri Lanka and expect much more in another two to three years particularly from Emmanuel and Nishendran.

Amalnathan further said "I have got a group of students who train hard and also get all the support from the coaches too. He is in charge of the entire SLTA training program (involving about 400 students of all age groups) and 14 coaches. He instructs the coaches and follow up their progress, while dealing directly with the students. He also said that the SLTA was willing to pump in more funds for the progress of junior tennis.

Amalnathan who started his coaching career as a beginners coach, worked for five years at the Triangle Tennis Trust, Britannia-Amritraj Trust for one year and at the Royeppa Academy for two years and also with the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA). 

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