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Category: tennis

Published on Friday, 08 July 2011 22:31

Written by Guyanga Weerasekera

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PREVIEW OF THE 96TH COLOMBO CHAMPIONSHIPS

After a highly successful Davis Cup campaign, the local tennis fraternity is now gearing up for the 96th Colombo Championships, the second ‘A’ Grade tournament of the year, conducted by the Playing Section of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association.

ThePapare.com spoke to Assistant Tournament Director Udith Wickramasinghe, for further details on this year’s championships.

The junior events which are set to begin on 9th July have attracted a mind boggling 400 entries. Wickramasinghe was quick to add that for the 1st time in Sri Lanka a pre qualifying event was held during last year’s tournament. Similar amount of competition is to be expected this year too. Almost all top ranked junior players are to compete. Sharmal Dissanayake, Nishangan Nadarajah, M A Shakir, Nilushi Fernando, Dinushki Ranasinghe, Kemalie Herath and Thisuri Molligoda are just some of the players vying for top honours during the 2 week period.

The Open and senior events would commence on 16th July offering high cash prizes for winners, runner ups and semi finalist. The men’s winner would walk away with 100,000 Rupees, which is incidentally the highest prize money awarded by any local tournament in the recent past. Davis Cup hero, Harshana Goddamanna, would be looking to collect his 3rd Colombo Championship in a row. Goddamanna would be challenged by his Davis Cup colleague, Dineshkanthan Thangarajah, this year’s SSC Open winner Irfan Hussain from India and Thanvir brothers who are highly ranked in Pakistan.

The women’s singles competition is set to reignite the Muttiah-Fernando rivalry which brought the womens section much wanted competition and enthusiasm. After Roshenka Fernando’s shock win over Amritha Muttiah in last year’s junior nationals, Muttiah came through another nail bitter at SSC Open final. Nilushi Fernando, Dinushki Ranasinghe and Kemalie Herath are looking to provide stiff competition to the top two.

The SLTA Playing Section has shown much confidence in their younger members, who make up majority of the organizing committee. Alongside Udit Wickramasinghe, N.S. Nishendran, Sasith Wickramasinghe and Sohan Patrick, who are accomplished national players, have been putting their hands up to assist Sri Lanka Tennis to take the next step forward. The dedication and effort of these individuals exemplary.

Wickramasinghe thanks the official ball sponsor, Dunlop, and Co-sponsors, Pepsi, Expo Cargo, Janashakthi Insurance and Vision Care for their invaluable support to make this event a success.

The 96th Colombo Championships would indefinitely show case the best local tennis talent, and ThePapare.com would be at Green Path bringing you all the action.

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