With the start of the Under-12 girls and boys main draws, the first ‘A’ grade tennis tournament of the year, the Singhalese Sports Club Open, will begin today at the four club clay courts at Maitland Place, Colombo. Due to rain, the start of the main draw matches were postponed on Monday following qualifying round matches that were worked off, amid rains, over the last weekend.

The main feature of this year’s SSC Open, held for the 7th consecutive year this time, is the additional facility the club provides for the participants of the tournament from outstations. This will therefore be the first such tennis tournament in recent history where free accommodation is provided for the players taking part in a major domestic competition. Accommodation is provided at the SSC player quarters during the tournament that is going on till July 11.

Aruna Seneviratne will be the Tournament Director while Ishara Seneviratne is the Tournament Referee in this SLTA ratified event.

Girls’ U-12 Top 5 seeds: 1. Tisuri Molligoda, 2. Kavindya de Silva, 3. Nethmi Waduge, 4. Harindi Lokuge and 5. Fathoum Issadeen

Boys’ U-12 Top 5 seeds: Chehan Fernando. 2. Joshua Jayaratne, 3. Nadir Nazar, 4. Akila Vimukthi and 5. Thanusha Eswarage

Title sponsors: Bank of Ceylon, Demo, Excel Trading, HNB Assurance, Dialog, Ole, Fontera and 3G Sports, the local agents for Head sports products.