Sri Lanka Mahesh Senewiratne played good tennis to stretch the second seed Eriko Wada of Japan to three sets at the 19th ITF Junior Tennis Championship which began at Greenpath yesterday.

The tournament began with Sports Minister Johnston Fernando gracing the occasion as chief guest.

Fernando presented some ‘momentos’ to two Sri Lankan players, Franklyn Emmanual and N.S. Nishendiran for their recent success at a tournament held in India last month.

Play started immediately after the ceremony was over.

The favourites won their first round matches respectively with no upsets.

Sri Lankan N.S.Nishendiran put up a good performance in defeating the strong Nathan Vachiragaorgha of Thailand.

In the first set Nathan put up a good fight but the Sri Lankan lad played good tennis to win that set by 6 games to 3.

In the second set Nishendiran dominated proceedings to win the match.

This was a particular good performance by the 14-year-old.

He will next play Brian Hung of Hong Kong who is seeded third in the tournament.

Young Emmanuel got off to a good start in the tournament beating Shashivaran Sabanathan 6/3, 6/2. He is also expected to do well in the tournament.