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Sri Lanka Tennis Association has finalised all arrangements to host their first tournament for the year. This will also be the first international tournament for 2003 to be hosted by Sri Lanka.

Ten top local juniors will be among the cream of players from the region when they compete in two ITF under 14 South Asia Tennis tournaments to be worked off from January 26 to February 6 in Colombo.

Five local boys and as many girls, handpicked by local tennis selectors, will battle it out with their counterparts from seven South Asian countries for ITF rankings and then possibly for a place in the ITF team for the East Asian Championships later this year.

The first of Colombo's under 14 S. Asian tournaments will be held from Jan 28 to Feb. 2 and the second, from Feb. 2 to 6. ''On Jan 26 and 27 all the players will undergo training sessions under ITF development officer Suresh Menon, at the end of which, he will decide the seedings for the first tournament.

The seeds of the second tournament will be decided by results of the first, but ranking points will be awarded in both tournaments,'' said SLTA's CEO, Boshan Dayaratne.

Sri Lanka girls aim to finish within the top eight. Coach of Sri Lanka girls team, Roshan Razick is optimistic that his lasses would come good. "I am fairly confident that three of our girls will finish among the top eight. Amitha Arudpragasam, Thavindra Ekanayake and Navodhi Zoysa are exceptionally talented and playing well presently,'' said Razick.

The local players will have to contend with challenges from seven other countries and a five-member ITF team of boys and girls. The seven countries taking part are India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar.

Hosts, the Sri Lanka Tennis Association will be put back by nearly US$30,000as it will pick up much of the tabs, including accommodation, for the forthcoming ITF Under-14 South Asian tournament in Colombo. The visiting players and officials will reside at Trans Asia, the SLTA's official hotel.

Sri Lanka's boys team will comprise, Kohulan Ravindrakumar (STC, Mt. Lavinia), Chavi Talagala, Ananda), Rukmal Cooray (SPC), T Dineshkanthan (SPC) and Mayuresh Rajaratnam (Royal) with Ganendran Subramaniam as coach cum non-playing captain. Representing Sri Lanka girls team will be Amitha Arudpragasam (CIS), Thavindra Ekanayake (Visakha), Navodhi Zoysa (Visakha), Ruchika Alahakoon (HFC, B'pitiya) and Bincy Paramanathan (HFC,B'pitiya) with Roshan Razick as coach/ captain. (D.W.)

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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