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| Sunday, 22 September 2002 |
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Training in Spain stood Amrith in good stead by LAL GUNESEKERA Fifteen-year-old Amrith Rupasinghe from S. Thomas' Prep, Kollupitiya who won the boys under-18 singles title of the Sri Lanka Junior International Championship, which was an International Tennis Federation (ITF) ranking tournament for junior world ranking purposes, became the first Sri Lankan after Umesh Walloopillai to have won a major junior Asian title. Walloopillai beat India's Leander Paes at the Asian Junior Championship in Colombo. Rupasinghe had played at junior internationals for the last two years, and his best performance was reaching the quarter-finals in Colombo in January this year. It has been quite a successful year for the teenager this year. He won the under-18 singles and doubles titles at the Junior Nationals where he also reached the final of the under-16 singles. Then at the main National Championship, Rupasinghe reached the semi-finals of the Men's Open singles losing to Franklyn Emmanual (the ultimate champion) in a three setter. He says that the one month of training he had in Spain earlier this year with five other boys and two girls just one month before the nationals helped him tremendously. Earlier this year, Rupasinghe also won the under-18 singles at the Cosmopolitan SC Open, under-16 singles at the Otters Open as well as four titles (mens singles and doubles, boys under-16 singles and doubles) at the Nuwara-Eliya Championship. He also competed at the Junior (under-16) Davis Cup in Malaysia earlier this year where he had the satisfaction of beating Uzbekistan's No. 3 in straight sets and Iran's No. 2 too in the singles, while overcoming a Filipino pair in the doubles. Here, Sri Lanka finished in eighth position out of 18 countries. Last year (2001), Rupasinghe, played in two junior international tournaments in Bombay and Madras, but failed to get through his first-round matches, but at the Indian Junior (under-18) nationals at Madras in August, he became the only Sri Lankan to qualify for the main draw of the singles, but lost in the first-round. The same year he competed at the South Asian Junior Championship and World Junior (under-14) Championship - both in Colombo. Rupasinghe took to the sport when only eight years old and was first coaches by Mrs. Sriyani Gooneratne and then by Sudantha Soysa who helped the youngster a lot. Now he comes under India's pro, Arul Amalnathan, at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA). He is sponsored by Sabalot. Amalnathan said that the juniors will figure in the under-18 circuit and play in India, Pakistan, Dubai and Saudi Arabia in ITF Group IV tournaments to obtain as many ranking points as possible to make attempts to get into the higher groups (II or III) next year. He hopes to have some top Sri Lankan juniors in the world junior rankings. But his main aim is to get a few of these Lankan juniors play in the Junior Grand Slam before 2004. |
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