Number of entries are likely to drop slightly for the fifth Junior Tennis tournament beginning today at the National Tennis Center. A batch of students from Battambang are staying away since schools there have just re-opened, and quite a few from French school Rene Descartes are on holidays away from the city.

Yet the total is expected to be around the 65 mark in various categories and among the players looking to repeat their success at the fourth edition are Srey Pov, Timothy Tep, Leng Sarinreach and Cheng Channeang.

Srey Pov’s dream run, which began with her dominance late last year in the Girls U12 category, has continued unchallenged in this year’s cycle in the higher grade of Girls U14. As always, the point of intense interest is whether someone can spring a surprise on her.

For the first time this season, Timothy Tep, the grandson of late Cambodian tennis legend Tep Khunnah, will be defending his Boys U14 title while Leng Sarinreach will be hoping to extend his Boys U12 supremacy he established by beating Cheum Seyha.

In the Boys U18 event, Vannasak Chheang will take a lot of beating as the defending champion, as will Cheng Channeang in the Girl’s section.

The event also coincides with a oral hygiene program at the Japan Cambodia Cooperation Center tomorrow, designed predominantly for tennis playing youths. It is being initiated by the newly formed Three Hearts Foundation which is the brainchild of the three Arai sisters from Japan and led by Hisae, who has been Tennis Cambodia’s global goodwill ambassador for well over two years.

The junior circuit this season has been supported by Coca-Cola Cambodia, Hagar Catering and Ezecom.