Eight Sri Lankan badminton players are expected to participate in the TATA Open India International Challenge in Mumbai starting today and will conclude on the 1st of December 2016.
The TATA Open India International Challenge is one of the ranking international badminton tournaments that initially started out as a domestic championship. In 2010 it was accredited as an international tournament under the Badminton World Federation and is accepted as an international challenge.
The players participating in the Indian International Challenge will be Sachin Dias, Buweneka Goonathileka, Ranthushka Sasindu, Madhuka Dulanjana, Thilini Hendahewa, Vishmitha Rashith and Banuka Abeysinghe.
Sri Lanka’s top seeds in the Men’s category, Sachin Dias & Buweneka Goonathileka will be playing the Men’s Singles tie along with the world junior players Ranthushka Sasindu and Madhuka Dulanjana.
The four players will initially be listed in the Men’s Singles Qualifying draw in order to gain entrance to the main tie. Sachin Dias defeated Ketan Chahal of India and will have to win the encounter with Satinder Malik of India to get the qualifying ticket. Similarly, Buweneka Gunathilake will face Ankit Malik of India in the final qualifying tie to get access to the main draw.
The other two players, Ranthushka Sasindu and Madhuka Dulanjana couldn’t find any luck in the qualifiers and thus will have to cut short their Indian tour. It was a similar occurrence for the Sasindu-Dulanjana pair in the Men’s Doubles Qualification where they were knocked out in the initial round. The other doubles pair from Sri Lanka were Banuka Abeysinghe and Vishmitha Rashith who also could not proceed beyond the first round of qualification.
Only the Sachin Dias- Buweneka Goonathileka pair were able to go beyond the initial qualifier and will have one more match to win before they make it to the main draw.
In the Women’s Singles it was national champion Thilini Hendahewa who has one more game in the qualifiers to get to the main draw. Thilini also partners with Sachin Dias in the Mixed Doubles and awaits qualification to the next draw.
