The tournament itself was a spectacle and a truly magnificent experience for all those who gathered as they witness
some of the finest junior tennis in action. The sheer fact that this tournament produced junior tennis of the highest
quality with many youngsters taking to the courts of the SLTA over the course of four days was a real testimony for
the main objective behind organizing this mammoth showcase.
With the tournament coming to an end and many schools and individuals taking centre stage, the main spotlight fell
on the best performing schools of the tournament. Ananda College bagged the award for the second time during
the last three years for the Best performing School in the boys’ category after which with Visakha Vidyalaya and Ave
Maria Convent, Negombo shared honor as the best performing school in the girls’ category.
Ananda College, Colombo a school that has been considered as a power house of Sri Lanka Tennis yet again
proved themselves of being worthy coming out on top as the best performing school in the boys’ category displaying
immense appeal and charisma with the game on court. Ananda this year put forth 9 teams for the 4 categories of play
which respectively happened to be grouped as Red, Orange, Green and the U12s’.
The Ananda College Red ball teams performed exceptionally well with both Team A and B reaching through to the
knock-out stages of the tournament. Unfortunately though Ananda College B had to face their own A team in the
quarterfinals the B team lost in the close contested match with A team resulting in the tournament and allowed their
A team to qualify for the semifinal which they won against St. Joseph’s College Negombo, 3 matches to Nil. However
in the red ball category Ananda had to settle for the Runner up position losing a thrilling final which went down to an
absolute cliff hanger.
In the Orange ball category, team Ananda showed great supremacy as they had a clean swipe holding themselves
unbeaten throughout the entire tournament. The Anandians in their first round of matches beat St. Thomas College
Mount Lavinia 4-1, Royal College 4-1, St. Josephs College 5- 0, St. Sebastians College 5-0 and Trinity College 5-
0. With such dominance in the group stages the expectations were sky high and failure seemed to quite a distance
away from them as they beat St. Peters College Colombo 3-1 in the semifinal. The orange ball finals then had to be
played against one of Anandas traditional rivals, Royal College Colombo who too failed to shatter the spirit of these
young Anandians who won the finals and with that the Carlton Junior Cup for the orange ball category, with a match
tally of 3-2 on the board.
In the green ball category the Anandians yet again proved themselves to be too strong as both their teams; team
A and B reached the knockout stages without much difficulty. Team B however ended their hopes of winning the
Carlton Junior cup as they lost the quarterfinals to Royal College Colombo 3-0 a close fought battle. Despite that
loss, the Ananda College A team was not willing to let it hinder their dreams of winning the Carlton Junior Cup as
they beat St. Joseph’s College Negombo 3-0 in their quarter final. The Anandians then had to play Royal College
in the semifinal and they ensured that the encounter was sweet vengeance as they beat the Royalists 3-0 to reach
the finals somewhat comprising for the loss faced by their team B. In the green ball finals the Anandians had to face
Maliyadeva College Kurunegala who is renowned for their exceptional performances in the junior levels. However
though the boys from Kurunegala couldn’t show much resistance against the power packed Anandians as they
cruised through to victory beating them 3-1 clinching the Carlton Junior cup for the green ball category yet again for
the third consecutive year.
The U12 age category too happened to be triumphing grounds for the boys of Ananda as their teams managed to
reach the knock out stages where the match format was surprisingly different to all the age groups played yet far
comprising of 2 singles and a double. However team B lost their quarterfinals to Maliyadeva College Kurunegala 2-1
and team A settled for a second runner up position with a 2-0 victory over Royal College, Colombo.
Ananda College has always been a school that has produced teams with great depth having less dependency on
individuals to carry forward the entire team. Team work is the ONLY reason for their success. That however may
have had its flip side with a dearth of big names produced from the school in the recent past. However that too
seems to have come to an end with the likes of Nelaka Dissanayake, Apna Perera, Anjana Sameera, Chathurya
Nilaweera, Vichinthya Nilaweera and Senuk Herat-Gunaratne performing exceptionally well, during this tournament
adding greater strength. Dulaj Wicramanayake, Rumika Samarasinghe, Kavindu Perera, Inuka Algama, Chathira
Dickmadugoda, Pasidu Weerasinghe, Pathum Rupasinghe, Kemeth Rajapaksha, Sonith Rajapaksha, Yuthila
Hettiarachchi, Rimitha Perera, Anuth Gunawardana, Sineth Dasanayake who never lost a single match throughout
the entire tournament are the depth of Tennis at Ananda that became evident with exceptional performances in each
of the 4 categories allowing the Anandians to grab great honors at this years Carlton Junior Cup further establishing
their dominance in Sri Lanka Schools Tennis.
The success that the Anandians achieved is as a result of many individuals who have always been behind the
scenes namely the Principal Mr. Kithsiri Liyanagamage, the school administration, teachers in charge - Mrs. Ramya
Samaradiwakara & Mrs. Manori Alahakoon, OASC Tennis Wing President - Mr. Kelum Herat-Gunaratne, Mr. Neshan
Gunasekara, parents, ground staff and the coaching staff.
The head coach Mr. Anupa C Maththamagoda and his coaching staff have played a pivotal role in managing the
available resources to achieve the tremendous success attained during this year’s tournament which could have
never been achieved without their perseverance, dedication, commitment and tireless years of work with many
sacrifices. The College head coach was assisted by highly abled and spirited group of individuals namely Mr.
Tharidu Perera, Mr. Prageeth Polgampala, Mr. Priyankara Amarasinghe, Mr. Rashan Wickramarathna, Mr. Rangana
De Silva, Mr. Supun Pathirage, Mr. Narain Weerasinghe, Mr. Madusha Wijeysuriya, Mr. Chavi Thalagala and Mr.
Malinda Seneviratne who have all worked tirelessly for the betterment of all teams and thus deserves all the success
achieved.
According to the source of the college they would like to dedicate this victory to late Mr. P. K. De Silva who was the
Tennis coach for many past years and furthermore, Miss Sujatha De Silva and Mrs. Dammika Dayananda who were
the past Teachers in charge. (SDF/HC)
