Sherene Wijesinghe to represent Lanka on Australian tour

by Lal Gunasekera

TENNIS: Sri Lanka's Sherene Jennifer Wijesinghe was picked to represent the under-14 team of the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) to tour Australia from January 8 next year (2008). She is ranked No. 8 in the ATF rankings.

The others who were selected for the ATF Under-14 team were Palha Natasha (India), Thombare Prathanana (India), Beey Adelle (Malaysia), Bhagvat Vaidehi (India), Bhargave Anushka (India), Guba Martina Jonicka (Philippines) and Bal Manita (India). A year-10 student of Bishop's College, Sherene, started competitive tennis in 2003 under Ganendran Subramaniam in the Under-10 category and now she is 14 years of age.

She was ranked No. 1 in 2005 in the Girl's under-12 category and was runner-up at the MPP\Milo Junior Championships in Malaysia and was awarded the S. Gunaratne challenge trophy at the Otter AC Open Championships in Malaysia and was awarded the S. Gunaratne challenge trophy at the Otter AC Open Championships.

In the Following year (2006), she was ranked No. 1 in the Girl's Under-14 category and won many titles at the Bandarawela TC, Ottor AC Sports Club, Colombo Championships, YMCA TC and Hilton Tennis Gala. She also took part in the ATF under-14 Series sponsored by Australian Open in Colombo and was placed seventh, ninth and fifth in the three tournaments.

This year (2007), Sherene, won the under-14 singles and doubles at the Junior National Championships and also won at the cosmopolitan championships. She competed at the ITF under-14 Asian Championships (Group II) in Pakistan and was placed fourth and was the only player from Sri Lanka to be selected in the ITF Under-14 team which toured Indonesia.

In the ATF Asian under-14 series in Colombo, Sherene, won the doubles and was placed third in the singles and placed fifth and seventh overall in the other two tournaments.

She has also played in India, Syria, Jordan, Bangladesh and Bahrain. She ended the season becoming eighth and selected to tour Australia next year with the ATF under-14 side.

Sherene also represented Sri Lanka at the World Junior Championships earlier this year (2007) and was also a reservist for the Junior Federation Cup event.

She is presently being coached by Chrysantha Perera, and owes her gratitude to former President of the SLTA, Suresh Subaramaniam, former CEO of SLTA, Lionel Almeida, Dr. Seevali Jayawickreme, Janaka Bogollagama the present SLTA chief and its new CEO, Lt. Col Chris de Silva.