Samarasinghe’s mastery sends Silva scuttling to defeat
Navin Samarasinghe demonstrated the full depth of his on-court mastery and technical brilliance with a raft of scintillating strokes, which sent S.K Silva scuttling to a 11-4, 11-1, 11-1 defeat in a quarterfinal clash of the 33rd Squash National Championship, played at the Air Force Squash Complex yesterday.
Navin Samarasinghe steadies himself for a rasping forehand. - Pic by Ranjith Perera
Samarasinghe, the competition’s defending champion, used his efficient movement and sensible positioning to conserve energy and send the ball toward Silva at near impossible angles.
His expert anticipation also left him with ample time to measure his strokes and he thrashed them out with frightening fury. In a nutshell, Samarasinghe’s triumph was every bit as dominant as the score line suggests.
In the opening set Samarasinghe burst through to a 5-1 lead before notching up another point with a slice of deception. Faking his body one way, Samarasinghe then twisted his racquet in the opposite direction right before it made contact with the ball to leave Silva flat-footed and without hope.
He whipped a string of cross-court winners and soon had the opening set 11-4 before storming to a 6-0 lead in the second. By now Samarasinghe was at his superlative best and had Silva swiping at air. He could only secure one point in the set before helplessly watching it slip by.
Silva was drained of any illusions of an upset by the third set and predictably slumped into a 5-0 hole mere minutes before the glass doors were shut. A short while later and Samarasinghe had the match in his pocket and those doors opened once again.
Over 100 players are scheduled to compete under six different categories at the National Squash Championship, which started last Friday and will end tomorrow (Monday) at the Air Force Squash Complex in Ratmalana. The competition will see Samarasinghe and Mihiliya Methsarani battling it out to defend their respective men’s and women’s titles.