Sri Lanka’s wild card receiver Savit Weerasinghe performed well in the boys’ ITF Junior Circuit Week II first round to beat his Indonesian opponent Nauvaldo Jati Agatra in comfortable straight sets 6/4, 6/3 as the tournament commenced at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association clay courts yesterday.
The initial round of the boys’ singles saw players from 10 countries lined up for the battle and two Lankans, Savit and Chathurya Nilaweera, both have qualified as wild card entries.
Top seed Malaysia’s Jian Keong Takeshi Koey advanced to the second round with an easy victory over India’s Tarush Bagai 6/4, 6/4. A tough battle was witnessed in the first round match between India’s Aryaan Bhatia and Chinese Taipei’s Yu Shiang Huang where the Indian recovered from a first set loss (2/6) to seal victory by winning the next two sets 7/6(2), 6/2.
Another three set fight was witnessed when Malaysia’s Hayden Khoo Menon beat Vietnam’s Hai Truong Vo 4/6, 6/0, 6/1.
Hong Hong’s Tim Gauntlett, Chinese Taipei’s Kai Yang, Timothy Phung (USA), Sandeep VM (India) and Thailand’s T. Nirundorn are the other players who won their first round matches yesterday.
The Girls’ singles main draw saw two Lankans, Alana Seneviratne and Anjalika Kurera make their way to the second round. Alana beat India’s Singha S. Baruah 7/5, 6/3 and Anjalika got the better of Harivarshini Murugesan (India) 6/3, 6/1. Unfortunately Oneli Perera was beaten by her Indian rival Reshma Challarapu 2/6, 3/6.
The ITF Junior Circuit has for 40 years given juniors all over the world an opportunity to compete, develop and travel the world, with many of the best players going on to be hugely successful on professional tours. With recent Junior Grand Slam champions such as Marta Kostyuk, Denis Shapovalov and Andrey Rublev, all making a memorable start to their careers on the professional tour, the ITF Junior Circuit will continue to provide opportunities at all levels of the game, and develop the stars of the future.
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