Naveed takes major honours
View(s):Mahaweli Reach tennis championship
By Aubrey Kuruppu
The Mahaweli Reach Junior Tennis Championship has seen an upsurge of interest in the sport. Last year was the inaugural event and 65 young boys and girls paraded their talent. This time around, the level of participation is much higher with the number increasing to 105.
Tennis players in Kandy, Matale and Kurunegala have a woeful lack of tournaments and the Mahaweli Reach Championship goes some way towards redressing the balance.
The downside is that all the matches are played on the same court and hence the organisers decided to limit a match to one set.
The piece de resistance of the tournament was between the defending Boys’ Under-19 Singles champion Naveed Mohamed and Mohamed Fahd. Fahd using his devastating service to good effect ran into an early 4-0 lead. Naveed was not getting his first service in at this stage. Quite wisely, he changed his tactics, slowed down his serve, kept the ball in play and made his opponent commit errors. The score was tied at 7-all. Fahd was going for broke, over-hitting and hitting into the net. The cool Naveed capitalised on his opponent’s over exuberance to win the set and the match 9-7.
Earlier Naveed had won three titles: the Boys’ Under-17 Singles, Under-17 and Under-19 Doubles. It was a personal triumph for the slim youngster from Zahira College Matale. Naveed beat Mohamed Amri 7-4 in the semi-final while Fahd overcame Trinitian Uvin Jayalath 7-3 in the second semi-final. Banura Jayawardena (Junior Rank No.4), Yasas Palihawardena (Rank 19) and Savindu Wannigama (Rank 27) kept the Trinity flag flying high at this tournament.
Managing Director of the Mahaweli Reach Hotel, Jayantha Panabokke, gave away the awards. Mithila Unamboowe, Nelunika Weerakoon and tournament director M. Sudarshan made this year’s event a total success.
Other results:
Boys Under-11 Singles: M.A.M. Shameel beat Nipuna Nuwan 7-3
Boys Under-13 Singles: Banura Jayawardena beat M.A.M. Shameel 7-5
Boys Under-15 Singles: Uvin Jayalath beat M.R. Naalan 9-2
Boys Under-13 Doubles: Mihin Jayalath and Banura Jayawardena beat M.A.M. Shameel and M.I. Hussain 7-3
Girls Under-11 Singles: Oshini Herath beat Tiara Beneragama 7-2
Girls Under-17 Singles: Hireni Weerasekara beat Nimaya Gamhewa 9-3
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