Sharmal extends his Tennis empire
Sharmal Dissanayake drops down for a volley
Teaming up with German Torben Hornung, Sri Lanka’s top-ranked junior tennis player, Sharmal Dissanayake made sure that he would complement his ITF Junior Circuit Under 18 singles title with a doubles medal, when the pair decimated the Korean duo of Jinwoo Bae and Yong Seak Jang 6-1, 7-5 in their finals clash at the SLTA courts yesterday.
Both the sixteen-year-old Royalist and Hornung struck the ball fiercely from the baseline and the court corners, leaving Bae and Jang flat-footed and helpless. The two were off the blocks in a flash, breaking the Koreans in their opening service game after a set of quick-fire exchanges at the net.
The German and the Sri Lanka then mounted an onslaught on the Koreans, battering them with an arsenal of scorching winners down the backhand and forehand wings as well as an array of majestic volleys. Before the Koreans knew it, they were down 4-1 and the set was racing away from them.
After a series of wild swipes by Bae and Jang flew long, the pair quickly surrendered the first set 6-1. They now found themselves needing a colossal effort to halt the imperious march of their opponents, and with the day’s oppressive heat leaving their t-shirts soaked in sweat and their racquets hanging heavy, this looked unlikely.
However, the ease with which they took the first set seemed to lull both Torben and Dissanayake into a false sense of security and gradually the unforced errors column of both boys started ticking to life.
The women's doubles winners: Riya Vaida (right) and Miyo Kobayashi. - Pics by Indika Handuwala.
Nevertheless, the Koreans couldn’t break through this slight opening and the set continue to remain on serve. At 5-5 though, Bae and Jang had an opening, up 0-40 on their opponent’s serve. Sensing immediate danger and perhaps the loss of the second set, Dissanayke and Torben reeled off a series of brilliant strokes to force the game to deuce, before eventually taking it.
In a flash, at 6-5, the Koreans were under immense pressure themselves to hold serve and send the set into a tie-break. Down 30-40, this pressure soared several notches. Moments later it crushed them, with Dissanayake and Torben taking the set and the match in a largely convincing fashion.
In the girls under 18 final, Singaporean Ria Vaidya and Japan’s Miyo Kobayashi enjoyed a straight-sets, 6-0, 7-5, victory over Indians Riya Bhatia and Vasanti Shinde. Vaidya and Kobayashi struck some rasping forehand winners in the opening set before coming out on top from a hard-fought second set, where the Indians produced some exquisite winners.
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