Royal beat S. Thomas’ at Tennis
View(s):Royal College beat traditional rivals S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia 3-2 in their 13th annual Tennis encounter, played for the E.F.C. Pereira Challenge Trophy. The matches were played at the Royal College courts in Colombo. Royal won the Under-19 age category to claim the main trophy on offer as well as the Under-15 age groups. S. Thomas’ had the consolation of winning the Under-13 battle to overcome the Thomians.
The champion Royal Under-19 team with officials
With the win, the tally thus moves to 9-4 in favour of Royal College. Royal had successfully won the trophy continuously the first seven years; before S. Thomas’ recorded their first win in 2012. The Thomians were able to retain the trophy consecutively for two more years running, until Royal claimed it back in 2015. Last year, once more, S. Thomas’ were able to regain some of their lost pride in a closely contested match to win 3-2, and claim victory.
The Royal Under-19s this year was led by Mihindu Samarasinghe and S. Thomas’ by Avindra Perera the current national junior champion and Davis Cup team member. Despite prevailing bad weather conditions, the tie got off as planned with the first singles was played between Davis Cup poolist Avindra Perera of S. Thomas’ playing Kavisha Ratnayake of Royal and the first doubles played between Avika Kelegama and Dhilvan Herath of Royal and were drawn against Thomians Rakesh Ratnasingham and Akira Perera. Avindra pulled off his Singles match to push S. Thomas’ into a 1-0 lead at the onset, but Royal made it 1-1 with Avika and Dhilvan winning their Doubles match.
Both teams were by now hard set in trying to break the tie by winning the next two matches however that too ended in a deadlock with a 2-2 tie with the Royal pair of Mihindu Samarasinghe and Senal Hemakumara getting the better of Thomians Dulitha Ellawala and Vihan Herath in the Doubles match, while Avindra’s brother Shivendra winning a hard-fought battle over the Royal vice-captain Nadil Silva in their Singles encounter. This, brought the battle right to the wire where Royal’s Thehan Wijemanne was to take on Akil Ismail of S. Thomas’ in the decider.
Thehan pleased the large Royal gathering there who had come to support the team by pulling off this decider and winning back the trophy in favour of Royal. Both teams showed great skill and vigour, and the Thomians fought back well and as expected to bring it right down to a tie break. However in the end it was the Reid Avenue School boys that triumphed and was able to bring back the glory lost last year.
The winning Royal team comprised of Mihindu Samarasinghe as captain, Nadil Silva as his deputy, Kavisha Ratnayake, Avika Kelegama, Dilvan Herath, Thehan Wijemanne, Senal Hemakumara, Venushka de Silva and Januda Jayasekera. The team was coached by Prasanna Athauda and Jaliya Yasaratne was the Master-in-charge. Former S. Thomas’ Tennis captain Shehan Meegama was the chief guest for the event. Principal of Royal College B.A. Abeyratne, together with the former Sri Lanka Tennis Association President and old Royalist D.L. Seneviratne, were also among the distinguished guests who graced this occasion and presented the Challenge Trophy.
In the Under-15 event Royal came out victorious with a 3-0 win, while in S. Thomas’ easily won the Under-13 event by 3-0.
The Royal Under-15 side
S. Thomas' Under-13s, who beat Royal - Pix courtesy RC-STC Tennis Committee