Anjalika, on a mission to play Junior Wimbledon
It has been an incredible journey for the young tennis sensation Anjalika Kurera, who won the Women’s Singles title in the 106th Colombo Open Championships. This was the third time Anjalika tasted success within the last four years. She had previously won the Women’s Singles events in 2018 and 2019.
Pumped up and propelling towards global stardom
Leading up to the National Championship this year, she had entirely stepped away from the sport for a year to focus on her studies. Even though the fitness levels had diminished, she was quite pleased to sacrifice a year of tennis to give priority to her GCE Ordinary Level examination as education plays a crucial role in a sportsperson’s life.
“Obviously it was a daunting challenge for me to give priority to studies considering the fact that I hardly attended school in the last few years due to commitments in tennis. The pandemic situation didn’t help my cause either, but I was happy to sacrifice a year of tennis to give priority to my ‘O’ Level examination and fortunately my efforts did pay off. Recalling, it now gives me great satisfaction,” the rising star, who was a member of the 2019 South Asian Games silver medal- winning women’s team.
Despite being away from the sport, Anjalika had no mental scars as she knew that it was just a matter of time when she will regain her confidence with some crucial tournaments on the horizon.
Her first hurdle was to prepare for the Colombo Open Championships, which was postponed due to the pandemic and she did intense training to make sure that she maintained the required standards leading up to the tournament. Despite the pandemic fears, players who were in the national pool were allowed to practice. Fortunately everything went according to plans and eventually Anjalika was able to beat Neyara Weerawansa to clinch her third top title.
She then went on to win the Under-18 Girls Singles title. Anjalika continued to dominate the tournament, winning the Mixed Doubles along with her counterpart Thehan Wijemanne. This was Anjalika’s third title of the tournament.
The 17-year-old national champion, a proud product of Ave Maria Convent, Negombo, said that due to the competitive nature of the school system, production of players has been high in the recent years. However she says some players tend to give up the sport early due to financial difficulties. She urges that the responsible authorities to look after the future generation and provide financial aid, so that it will be a motivational factor to prolong their careers.
She said that there has been several tournaments at school level before COVID-19 and she rued the fact that the pandemic had forced them to train individually and all tournaments at school level have been postponed. Thus the growth of players have been greatly hampered.
“I think we should expand our scope to find new players from outstations and we should not limit ourselves to the city. This way we can find players rich with talent. If everything goes according to plan we will have a strong set of players to pick and choose whenever required,” Anjalika elaborated.
Anjalika, an owner of all kinds of records at national level, has now set her sights on playing the Junior Wimbledon and the grand slams. For that to happen, she has to play International Tennis Federation (ITF) affiliated tournaments on a regular basis.
Throughout her career, her family has been a pillar of strength and even now she has to travel from Negombo to Colombo on a daily basis for practices and for tournaments, which is an uphill task. Despite all the achievements at the national level she is yet to find a sponsor. She said that if she finds a sponsor it would be a great relief for her family.
“Then I can focus on my game,” she said.
A hectic 2022 awaits Anjalika as she targets to win multiple titles on both national and international levels to achieve her dream to represent Sri Lanka in the Junior Wimbledon and take Sri Lanka tennis to the next level in the years to come.