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| Sunday, 6 February 2005 |
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Forty nine overseas players for Junior International Tennis Tourney in Sri Lanka by Lal Gunasekera Forty-nine players (36 boys and 13 girls) from overseas will be seen in action at the 22nd Sri Lanka Junior (under-18) International Championship, which is an International Tennis Federation (ITF) event for world ranking purposes, to be staged from February 12 to 20 at the Singhalese Sports Club (SSC) courts, Maitland Place. Among the overseas competitors are 13 boys from South Korea, 10 boys and two girls from Chinese Taipei, nine boys and 10 girls from India, two boys from Canada, one boy each from Japan and Indonesia and one girl from Switzerland. All told, there will be 55 boys and 25 girls vying for the singles and doubles. Sri Lanka are among 19 countries who will figure at the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Federation Cup (Asia/Oceania Zone) to be worked off from April 30 to May 8 in the philippines and May 7 to 15 in Thailand respectively. The countries are Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Thailand, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Uzbekistan. The spokesman for the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) also told the Sunday Observer that the Davis Cup (Asia/Oceania Zone Group III) will be staged in Hong Kong from July 9 to 15 and the eight countries vying for honours include Sri Lanka (promoted from Group IV), Hong Kong (demoted from Group II), Malaysia, Vietnam, Tajikistan, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He said that practices are underway at the moment among veteran Rohan de Silva, Oshada Wijemanne, Harshana Godamanna and Renouk Wijemanne, while the pool (comprising six to eight players) is to be picked during the course of this week. He also said that Arjan Perera will be the non-playing captain with Irshad Othman as manager. He further disclosed that former Indian player cum coach Enrico Piperno is due in Colombo on February 11 for a week or 10 days to be with the squad. He is expected to return again later, while the Sri Lankans will also train in India for about 10 days before they leave for Hong Kong for the Davis Cup in July. Among the other international events are: Men's Futures on April 2 to 10 at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Greenpath, World Juniors from May 14 to 22 in Australia, and another Men's Futures event in December at the NTC, while the 90th National Championship has been slotted for August 20 to 28 also at the NTC. |
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