Ashen and Ganuka advance

Sri Lanka’s Ganuka Fernando and Ashen Silva cleared their first hurdle in the Junior Boys’ Singles while recording convincing victories in the Maldivian Challenge Tennis Tournament, which continued at the National Tennis Centre in Male yesterday.

Ganuka was in tremendous form in his opening encounter as he demolished Aneef Adam of the Maldives in Straight sets 6-1, 6-0 after a match that lasted for one hour and 12 minutes.

Ashen was equally brilliant during his opening fixture as he defeated Meekail Ahmed of the Maldives in straight sets 4-0, 4-0 in under 30 minutes of play.

Earlier, in the round robin stage of the tournament Ganuka defeated Ismail Irshan of the Maldives 6-2, 6-3 in just over one hour while Ashen trounced Mohamed Ameen of the Maldives 6-0, 6-1 in just over 45 minutes. Players from Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Oman, India, Malaysia and Singapore are participating in this tournament, which carries a prize money of US $10,800.