Second seeded Yasitha de Silva staged a furious recovery to sweep away a large second set deficit and enforce a 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) tie break victory over Joshua Moraes, in their first round under 18 boys Cinnamon Lakeside Tennis Championship encounter, played yesterday at the hotel courts.
As the match kicked off it was clearly evident that Yasitha’s superior build was helping him to swipe the ball back past his helpless opponent. Yet to his credit Joshua never yielded an inch and met each ferocious stroke with equal tenacity.
Yasitha de Silva blasts a forehand back over the net. Pic by Sanka Vidanagama |
After much scampering from both players, Yasitha was eventually able to clinch the first set and sent Joshua back to his seat thinking hard. He re-emerged running determinedly and chasing literally everything Yasitha was throwing at him, giving him an early 3-1 lead in the third.
This sudden resurgence forced a flurry of errors from Yasitha, and his ripping forehand which had served him so well during the first set was slowly beginning to wilt under the pressure. A miscued finish at the net led to yet another service break and Joshua had a very commanding 5-1 lead in the second set.
Things looked as though they were going into a third set until Yasitha then slowly and surely began to reel himself back into the match, holding serve and breaking his suddenly noticeably fatigued opponent with ease and regularity. In the blink of an eye the score was 6-6 and things were going into a tie break.
It was here that the Yasitha of the first set returned and he proceeded to thrash down heavy serves and forehands to race to a 6-4 lead in the breaker. As Joshua meekly returned a vicious groundstroke, Yasitha floated a clever ball into the corner of the court to earn a hard fought victory.
During the day’s action in the first round of the boys under 16 age group, Nadir Nazar lost 6-2, 6-0 to Suren Balachandra, Chandrabose Kuganeshan demolished Thalal Cassim 6-0, 6-0 and Shashanka Gomesz brushed past Eranga Goonewardena 6-2, 6-1.- D.S |
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