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Richest Tennis tourney gets underway – Rs. 1 million on offer

Rajeev sets the Lankan pace
By Shamseer Jaleel
Former Royalist Rajeev Rajapakse advanced to the stage two of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Men’s Future tournament’s qualifying round which got underway at the Queens Tennis Centre of the Gymkhana Club, yesterday.

This is the richest ever tournament hosted under the auspices of the SLTA.
Rajeev was in cracking form brushing aside the Indian Nikhil Murali in straight sets 6-1, 6-0. Rajeev will find stiff opposition when he clashes another Indian Aditya Madkekar in his stage two game today.

In the second game Sukul Savrav (India) beat Meshal Sinnen (Sri Lanka) 6-0, 6-0. The third game of the day saw home versus home battle where Divyanshu Singh beat Jitender Mehlda 6-0, 6-1.

.In the last game of the day saw a close match between John Mc Gahon of Ireland and YU Da Shieh from Chinese Taipei . Mcgahon went on to win the game 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

The principal sponsors of the tournament is Waterfront Ascon Residencies and official accommodation was at the Golden Enclave Ascon Residencies in Colombo where all the players and the officials were housed.

There will be a Men’s Singles draw of 32 and Doubles draw of 16 in the main events. The qualifying round was played yesterday to fill the Eight slots which were available with twenty one players in action.

Harshana Godamanne, Rohan de Silva and Oshada Wijemanne were on Wild Cards for the hosting country. The official referee for the tournament Asita Attygalle was assisted by an Indian referee. This tournament carries 1 million as prize money. After this leg the matches will be played on back-to-back basis in India at two venues.

According to Chief Executive Officer of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) Lionel Almeida they decided to hand over the tournaments to clubs. With 71 players in action in this tournament with majority of them from countries such as Japan, England, India, Pakistan, France, Italy and Romania it is a golden opportunity for the local players to test their skills.

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