Table Tennis: Lankan lasses impress at Commonwealth Championship

The Sri Lanka women’s table tennis team occupied the fifth position in the team event at the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship 2015 in Surat, India as the highest achievement ever acquired in a Commonwealth TT championship. 

Sri Lanka men’s team secured the seventh position.

Sri Lankan women beat Cyprus 3-1 to secure the fifth position. 

Erandi Warusawithana who gave a good competition to Singapore’s No. 1 player earlier showed that her talent showed was not instinctive. 

She defeated her opponent quite confidently. 

“I know that I could survive and continued to say -- Honestly, I was not sure of winning till I went to the table. But when I practiced with the opponent, I had a feeling that I could win, maybe, because I could return most of her shots without much effort,” she said after the match.

Hansani Kapugeekiyana and Isara Madfurangi played the other two singles in the team event.

In the Singles events Erandi Warusawithana won the Group championship in her group and is ready to play in the main competition. 

Her patience and control over the ball allowed her to keep the ball in the table more than her opponents. 

Her calm cool nature allowed her to identify and adapt to the playing style of the opponent. 

She beat Catherine Spicer of Trinidad and Tobago 3-1 (11-6, 11-7, 8-11, 11-8) and Emma Ludlow of North Ireland 3-1 (11-2, 11-13, 11-8, 13-11).

Hansani Kapugeekiyana occupied the No.2 position in the group beating Danisha Patel of South Africa 3-2 and lost to Karina Le Fevre of England 1-3 and Ruwani Kannangara became No.3 in the group by defeating Zodwa Maphanga (South Africa) 3-1 and she lost to Divya Deshpande (India) 0-3 and to Hwee Lee Herng (Singapore) 0-3. 

Ishara Madfurangi became No.3 in her group when she beat Aleena Edwards (Trinidad and Tobago) and lost her touch to lose to Pearlyn Koh Kai Xin (Singapore) 1-3 and to India’s Patkar 0-3.

Four Indians, two English and one Cyprus players were selected to the main draw apart from Erandi Warusawithana. 

These eight players will play against the ranked players numbers 1-8 on a knockout basis. 

According to the main draw Erandi who is in the best 16 players now will play the quarter-finals against Manika Batra of India.

Sri Lankan Men’s team didn’t have much luck in the individual competition. 

Rohan Sirisena – the Captain became No.2 in his group while Nirmala Jayasinghe, Chameera Ginige and Prasad de Silva ending at No.3 in their respective groups.