The ITF World Junior Tennis Competition of Asia/Oceania Pre-Qualifying Zone commenced on Friday, 4th March in Colombo, Sri Lanka hosted by Sri Lanka Tennis Association.
Twelve boys’ and Eight girls’ teams, from a total of 17 countries, will fight their way through tough regional pre-qualifying competition in order to make a place for their nations in the Final Qualifying which will be held at Bangkok in the month of April.
WJT Girl’s event begins with the round-robin stage, where the nations are divided into two groups of four teams. Top 2 teams of each group qualify for the knock-out semifinals, while the remaining nations would go into play-offs to battle it out to decide the final positions.
In the Boy’s event, round-robin stage is divided into four groups of four teams. Top 2 teams of each group will line up for play off 1-8 and would compete for top 2 position of the event, while the remaining nations go into play-offs and battle it out to decide the final positions.
In the event, Sri Lankan girls’ recorded a convincing victory over Philippines in the finals with a score of 3-0 at the SLTA Courts yesterday.
Anjalika Kurera won the first singles against Carlos Isabela 4/6, 7/5, 6/2 while Anika Seneviratene bagged the second singles by beating Eala Alexandra 6/2, 6/1.
The doubles match also turned out to be an easy one for Sri Lankan Girls as Anika Seneviratene and Anjalika defeated Eala Alexandra and Vitaliano, Miles Alexandra 6/0, 6/0.
Both the finalist teams, Sri Lanka and Philippines have been promoted to the WJT final qualifying event of 2016 which will be held in Bangkok next month.
On other hand, Seeded No. 1 Kazak boys beat Sri Lankan counter parts 2-1 and Kuwait defeated number 2 seeded Syria 3-0 in the semifinals and secure their places in the World Junior Tennis Competition, Final Qualifying of Asian Oceania zone.
Kazakhstan and Kuwait will meet today in the finals to establish the Top team of this event.
Source: Asian Tennis Federation
