Royal College emerges Green Balls tennis champs

Royal College, Colombo emerged champions of the Green Balls boys’ category at the all-island inter-school tennis tournament titled ‘Cool Tennis’ worked off from 21-23 October at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) Courts in Colombo.

The victorious Royal College Green Balls Team (from left): Thevjan Weerasekera, Imthisal Nazeer, Tharuk Marasinghe, Nithila Goonetilleke, Vivek Pethiyagoda, Thilina Dissanayake, Methvan Wijemanne, Amrik Wettimuny, Rivindu Jayathissa and M. Muaz with President SLTA Iqbal Bin Issac and Royal College Coaches V. Thinesh Kumar, K. Abarajithan, S. Hariprashanth (Head Coach) and S. Shiyanath of Hit Tenniz Academy.

The tournament was organised for the sixth time by the SLTA with support from the International Tennis Federation which had been promoting the Junior Tennis Initiative to popularise tennis among schools throughout the world including in Sri Lanka, especially in outstation areas. This year saw the biggest participation at the event; 1,200 children, both boys and girls, representing  40 schools from different parts of the island, which is one of the biggest participations in the tournament from the whole of Asia, according to SLTA sources. 

The tournament was held during previous years under the title ‘Tennis 10s’. The age groups represented are under-7, 8 and 10 with the groups identified as the Red, Orange and Green Balls respectively. The winner of the girls’ Green Balls category was Ave Maria Convent, Negombo. The boys’ Red and Orange categories were won by Ananda College, Colombo while the girls’ Red and Orange categories were won by Ave Maria and Newstead Girls’ College, Negombo respectively.

The main sponsor of the event was Perera & Sons while the equipment sponsor was Dunlop. 

The Junior Tennis Initiative was launched in Sri Lanka in 2010 and has been held annually, introducing the game to a large number of players from across the island.