A group of more than 20 high ranked players will come under the watchful eyes of four coaches in the first ever High Performance training program initiated by the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) which began on July 2 in collaboration with the Ministry of Sports.
The players were selected according to the criteria in the under-16 and under-18 men’s and women’s categories. They will be trained b Renouk Wijemanne, Sylvester Francis and Ashan Dep as their official coaches while Bilal Yusuf will be the strength and conditioning coach.
This initiative program will be conducted free of charge and all players under these categories will be sent to participate in a minimum of six international tournaments per year as well according to SLTA.
However, the Davis Cup tournament is at a standstill but SLTA president Iqbal Bin Issack is very mindful of keeping a pool of players in condition and prepared for any eventual tournament that may come up.
Meanwhle, Sri Lanka’s wheelchair tennis team of three players have qualified for the World Cup to be held in October in Italy.
They qualified after being successful in the qualifying rounds that was played earlier this year. A total of 16 countries will be seen in action in the finals.
Under-16: Wenuka Kithnuka, Zaidh Zihar, Dinethya Dharmaratne, Saajida Razick, Dewmini Warnasuriya, Dahamna Methsandi.
Under-18: Tehan Wijemanne, Chathurya Nilaweera, Jaitra de Saram, Rakesh Ratnasingham, Kiran Vairavanathan, Anjalika Kurera, Oneli Perera, Tania Doloswala, Dinethya Dharmaratne.
Open: Luca Knese, Sharmal Dissanayake, Vibuda Wijebandara, Kiran Vairavanathan, Janali Manamperi, Savini Jayasuriya, Neyara Weerawansa, Tuvini de Alwis.