Former Davis Cup player Rajeev Rajapakse made a fine comeback after losing a tight first set to win the next three sets easily in the quarter final of the Men’s Singles event at the 94th Tennis Nationals held at the SLTA courts yesterday.
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Rajeev
Rajapakse has his eyes on the ball.
Pic by Saman Kariyawasam. |
Rajeev seemed to be caught off guard by a fine display of tennis by his opponent Amresh Jayawickrema and ended up losing a hard fought first set 7/5 in the latter’s favour. From then on Rajeev sorted out his game and played some stylish, aggressive tennis to waltz through the rest of the quarter final, showing off his true capability though being unseeded in this tournament and Amresh only managed to win two games in the remaining three sets.
The scores stood at 7/5, 0/6, 0/6, 2/6 in Rajeev’s favour at the end of the game.
In the next quarter final Sankha Athukorale dropped the first two sets by playing some loose, casual tennis.
And even though he attempted a comeback in the third set his counterpart T. Dineshkanthan staved off this late rally to pull off a fine win in straight sets. If Sankha had played the first two sets with the same enthusiasm that was shown in the third, the result may have been quite different.
The third quarter final of the day saw Harshana Godamanne make his way in to the semi-final with very little resistance from Guyanga Weerasekara who was well and truly outclassed, and he couldn’t come up with any answers to the questions posed by Harshana who out served and outplayed him in all aspects of the game.
In the first round of the women’s doubles, the combination of Vinuri Wickremaratne and Rishmitha Sivakanthan got the better of Anishika Gomesz and Rangana Karunaratne, with the latter duo causing no difficulty to the winners.
In the only other match to be concluded in the women’s doubles Nilupul Gunasekara and Kemali Herath were too strong for Inaya Botheju and Ayendri Seneviratne and made a comfortable entry in to the next round.
The rest of the matches scheduled to be played yesterday were called of due to inclement weather and are to be continued today.
Men’s Singles - Quarter Finals.
Rajeev Rajapakse Beat Amresh Jayawickrema 7/5, 0/6, 0/6, 2/6
T. Dineshkanthan Beat Sankha Athukorale 6/3, 6/1, 7/5
Harshana Godamanne Beat Guyanga Weerasekara 6/1, 6/3, 6/3
Women’s Doubles – First Round.
Vinuri Wickremaratne/Rishmitha Sivakanthan Beat Anishika Gomesz/Rangana Karunaratne 6/2, 6/1.
Nilupul Gunasekara/Kemalie Herath Beat Inaya Botheju/Ayendri Seneviratne 6/0, 6/3 |
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