ADITHYA THE GIRL WITH THE GOLDEN TOUCH
Yasodara was in a class of her own and she too impressed and performed beyond expectations. Adithya was inspired by her elder sister’s success and is now in command of the game. Today she is a sensation and a young tennis wizard
Ten-year-old Adithya Karunaratne is a girl with the golden touch. She is going from strength to strength in tennis. Five years ago she migrated after her elder sister Yasodara was offered a scholarship to Hong Kong which their parents Lloyd and Gothami grabbed with open hands.
Yasodara was in a class of her own and she too impressed and performed beyond expectations. Adithya inspired by her elder sister’s success is now in command of the game. Today she is a sensation and a young tennis wizard.
Adithya began her winning trend three years ago when she was seven years old by winning a novices ranking tournament in Hong Kong. She is the first from Sri Lanka to achieve such a feat. Since then she has not looked back.
Following her success in Hong Kong, Adithya continued her winning ways. Her recent triumphs in California speaks volume of the young girl’s dedication and determination.
In an e-mail interview with Daily Mirror she revealed that she spent one month in Los Angeles (Orange City), USA and competed in four USTA sanctioned ranking tournaments in the Girl’s under 12 category.
The trip was a huge opportunity and gave her the much needed exposure and experience. According to Adithya, Florida and Orange County are considered to be very strong tennis areas in the US. Despite being ten years and unseeded, she showed great spirit and maturity as she went on to defeat the top three rankers in the tournaments she took part in.
Adithya’s father Lloyd said that she emerged as the Southern California Summer Junior Open champion and also grabbed the doubles championship as well at the Lakewood Junior Open and 23rd Annual Tennis Club Junior Open. Apart from that she reached the singles semi finals at the 23rd Annual Tennis Junior Open and the 19th Annual Costa Mesa Summer Junior Classic and Lakewood Junior Open.
In addition to that in February this year Adithya was awarded eight tro- phies at the annual prize giving at the Hong Kong Tennis Association (HKTA) which included five championship trophies and three runners up trophies in the junior series of HKTA ranking tournaments.
Her achievements are remarkable due to the fact that as she is the only Sri Lankan player to win eight trophies in a Zone 1 tennis playing country and three titles in the USTA junior tournament because Sri Lanka is a Zone 2 playing nation and they have a long way to go to reach this status.
Lloyd stated that Adithya indulges in a solid training programme and was under the guidance of experienced coaches. Coach Bhagat Singh who works with her on a full time basis. Singh who is a renowned coach from India who has been a sparring partner of top players such as of Sania Mirza, Rohan Bopanna and former world junior ITF number one Yuki Bhambri.
Coach Singh’s says that he has never met a girl with such talent, aggressive and hardworking as Adithya. She is just ten years and she is in par with under 14 girls. “Take my word, I am sure she will be of world class in time to come,” comments Singh.
Adithya’s first mentor after migrating to Hong Kong was the HKTA Academy Director Benny Lin who in an e-mail interview mentioned that Adithya’s performances as a ten-year- old are incredible. This year has been her best as she played with consistency.
Lin emphasized that playing a few good matches is fine but playing good tennis consistently is something special. Continuing Lin said “She not only performed well at the HKTA tournaments but showed her talent at the US junior circuit too. When I took over Adithya I was confident that she would become a sensation and she has performed more than my expectations and the performance at the Southern California junior circuit speaks volume of what could be expected of her in the future.”
Lin says that she will have to increase her training sessions and also participate in overseas tournaments as much as possible. “I can say with confidence that she is currently at the level of top players in the US and European junior circuit,” commented Lin.
Adithiya wants to be a professional player. Looking back at the history of professional tennis in the past two decades no player in the top 100 has come from either Hong Kong or Sri Lanka because tournaments in these two countries are not strong and competitive.
In conclusion Adithya’s parents Lloyd and Gothami said: “We are very grateful to both the coaches, Benny Lin and Bhagat Singh for guiding Adithya. Otherwise her talents would have bddn wasted.