Dinara secures ITF semi-final spot

Sri Lanka’s Dinara de Silva produced another giant killing performance to reach the semi-finals of the ITF Junior Tennis Tournament, which continued at the SSC Courts in Maitland Place yesterday.

The unseeded 13-year-old schoolgirl from St. Bridget’s Convent brought down the more fancied sixth seed Durganshi Kumar of India with a marathon three-set victory in the quarter-finals of the Girls’ Singles event.

Dinara took the initiative and won the opening set 6-3 but conceded the second set to her opponent 2-6 before staging a superb recovery to snatch the deciding third set 6-4 following an exciting contest.

Dinara will now play another Indian, fifth seed Rishitha Reddy in the semi-finals at the same venue today.