Sri Lanka tennis celebrates centenary with Asian showpiece

The Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) will be celebrating its 100th anniversary with the hosting of the prestigious Asian Tennis Federation's annual general meeting later this month.

The SLTA is the second-oldest tennis association in Asia and this is the first time the Asian Tennis Federation will hold this significant event in Sri Lanka.

The 100th anniversary is a landmark milestone for the SLTA besides playing its part to reinvigorate an exciting engagement between the Sri Lankan tennis community and its Asian neighbours. At a media briefing the president of the SLTA Iqbal Bin Issack said that tennis with its rising popularity has generated renewed interest among a young international audience and the time was ripe to provide opportunities for more Sri Lankan youth to enter the sport.

"In recent years the Sri Lanka has been gaining more exposure to international tennis and we can see that a lot more youth players are being drawn to the sport. Sri Lanka has a vibrant sporting culture in general and I believe given the right opportunities and support our youth players will be able to go toe-to-toe against the best international players. Already we have seen some promising performances from our youth players during the last series of tournaments and this is only the beginning" said Issack.

For its future plans SLTA will be engaging foreign coaches to train youth players for international games and the Association hopes that the private sector will help in developing tennis in Sri Lanka.

In the build up to its centenary celebrations the SLTA was involved in promoting the development of tennis and has successfully conducted multiple back-to-back tournaments commencing from February this year in the form of professional-level events and junior level tournaments, finishing up with three international Tennis Federation under-18 tournaments for boys and girls which were concluded last month.