The national mixed doubles pair of Rajeev Rajapakse and Amritha Muttiah lived up to their reputation and annexed the crown at the 95th Colombo Tennis Championship continued at the SLTA clay courts yesterday.
Once again they defeated the bottom seeds Harshana Godamanne and Shalini de Silva in the final, but this time it was in straight sets, 6/3, 6/4.
Although the games were closely contested Rajapakse and Muttiah combined well and played with better understanding to enforce errors from their opponents.
Amritha Muttiah and Rajeev Rajapakse in the mixed doubles final |
The usually aggressive and accurate Godamanne could do little to earn their points with Rajapakse and Muttiah able to rally well.
Former national champion and Captain, Rohan de Silva won the men’s over 35 singles title when he defeated R.L. Kuruppuarachchi in straight sets in the final.
De Silva was in full command from the start of the match as he crushed his opponent, who ran out of ideas on how to counter the varying pace of de Silva, 6/0, 6/1.
Veteran tennis player Ravi Subramanium clinched the men’s over-45 title when he defeated Sylvester Francis, who conceded the match in the second set through an injury.
Subramanium took the first set 6/0 and was leading 4/0 when Francis sustained a hamstring injury and was forced to retire.
A major upset was witnessed in the wheelchair tennis singles when top seed and world 94th ranked player Upali Rajakaruna was beaten by Gamini Dissanayake in the semi-final.
Dissanayake is also an emerging wheelchair tennis player for the future who works hard in his game. The rise in his standard is not going unnoticed and he could make a name for himself in the international circuit in the near future.
He beat Rajakaruna in a hotly contested match that went the full distance of three sets. Even the first two sets had to be decided in a tie breaker with Rajakaruna winning the first set.
Dissanayake will now meet Sunil Perera in the final. Bottom seed Perera who beat fourth seed Mahanama Basnayake in the semi-final, is also a player who did well in a British Wheelchair tennis tournament this year.
The women’s doubles final will see the favourites play in the final this morning. Top seeds are Amritha Muttiah and Shalini de Silva who will take on bottom seeds Kemalie Herath and Nilushi Fernando.
The top seeds defeated Roshenka Fernando and Dinushki Ranasinghe in straight sets, 6/2, 6/0 in the semi-final. The bottom seeds received a walk-over from Pathmila Herath and Pathumka Athukorala.
The men’s doubles too will see the top and bottom seeds meet in the final. Top seeds are Harshana Godamanna and Rajeev Rajapakse who are the national doubles pair while the bottom seeds are Dineshkanthan Thangarajah and Amresh Jayawickrema. A close contest can be expected in this match. |
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