“Seeing that crowd, my legs started shaking,” says 10-year-old Thadi, who competed with the great tennis player Novak Djokovic. 

Ten-year-old player Thadi Karunanayake had the opportunity to become the opponent of world favourite Novak Djokovic in the exhibition tennis match marking the start of the Australian Open, which will be the first event of the year’s Grand Slam tennis calendar.

This opportunity was given to Thadi, who is ranked No. 2 in the overall Australian tennis rankings of his age category, as an evaluation by the Australian Tennis Authority. In this match held last Friday (13), Novak and another upcoming Australian were paired together with Thadi, against Australian number-one tennis player Nick Kyrgios.

It was notable that Thadi Karunanayake managed to score the winning points in that match. All 15,000 tickets were sold out within 30 minutes of the start of the exhibition match, a sales record in the Australian tennis sector. 

Thadi Karunanayake is the son of Tharaka Karunanayake, who was a prominent singer and IT specialist in Sri Lanka, and Udeni Kure, the daughter of the late Governor Rejinold Kure. They live in Melbourne, Australia.

Regarding this opportunity, Tharaka Karunanayake told The Morning Sports: “Thadi’s grandfather [Rejinold Kure] passed away a few hours before the start of this match. Even under such circumstances, Thadi participated in this competition. Thadi told me after the match that when I came to the middle of the field in the middle of such a crowd, my legs started shaking.”

The Australian tennis administration has paid special attention to Thadi's skills and Thadi Karunanayake has been selected for a session to be held in Australia by the superstar Rafael Nadal Academy soon.