Vimuktha steals the show

ATF Under 14 tennis tournament

By Harry Jayachandra

Indeewari in action at ATF Under 14 tennis tournament . Pic by J. Weerasekera

Sri Lankan Vimuktha De Alwis stole the show on the fifth day of the ninth ATF Under 14 Series tennis tournament played at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) hard courts yesterday. De Alwis won boys singles title by defeating Malaysian Abdul Razak in the final.

De Alwis won the first two sets comfortably 6-2, 6-3. But Razak fought back in the third set to take the match into a tie breaker. De Alwis though managed to prevail by seven games to six. Fourth seeded De Alwis had already set the bar in the semi finals. He beat the pre tournament favourite and top seed Mohommad Radar of Kuwait in straight sets 6-4 6-4.

Razak progressed to the final after Lankan Sharmal Dissanayake was forced to retire early in the second set due to an injury after losing the first set in the quarter final.

The semi final saw Razak dispose of Indian Sujiv Chopra 6-3, 6-3. De Alwis in his quarter final was four games up before his opponent Indian Duzbionjit Singh suffered a strain and was compelled to give up, thus giving the victory to De Alwis.

In the girls tournament Indian Iska Wadhawan made it to the final after being pushed to the limit by her compatriot Handa Sherawat. Wadhawan had to weather the storm of two tie breakers in both sets before subduing her opponent 7-5 7-6. Wadhawan will face either Thayakaran Wijesekera or Molligoda Ranasinghe in the finals.

The two Sri Lankans made it through to semi finals on contrasting fashion. Wijesekera dropped the first before making a storming comeback to take the next two sets while Ranasinghe made it through in straight sets.

This tournament will go until May 18. It features 26 foreign players from countries such as India, Kuwait, Malaysia, Bahrain and the host nation Sri Lanka The Lankans are holding this tournament for the fifth time.