Defending National Champion Navin Samarasinghe went on to defend his National title for the fifth consecutive year and bring home his overall eight Senior National title
Meanwhile Mihiliya Methsarani bagged her maiden Senior National title at the recently concluded 32nd Senior National Squash Championship. The tournament which was conducted by the Sri Lanka Squash Federation was held at the Sugathadasa Squash complex.
Navin Samarasinghe, who returned to the squash arena after some time did well to overcome all the opponents quite easily before qualifying for the final. On the other hand Binura Jayasooriya had to play a game of his life to overcome bottom seed Saman Thilakarathna in the quarters in a nail-biting five setter before having the better of Dilshan Gunawardena in the semi finals.
The Men’s Open final saw Binura taking the initial lead. Binura was probably playing his best game, going for nick shots all over the court where Navin barely had time to react. In the first set Navin was totally held up by Binura with his cracking pace and not allowing any time for his opponent to recover. Binura took the first set at 11/2 quite easily and went on to lead 5/0 in the second set making things worse for the defending Champion. Though Navin was helpless with Binura making every loose ball drop dead along the corners of the court, his courage and determination to break loose and come back into the game was not to be shattered. Navin kept his head straight and fought bravely till the scores were leveled and went on to take the second set at 18/16 to tally the set scores at 1 each. Later on Navin took full control of the match; slowing down the game and breaking the rhythm of his opponent to take the last two games quite easily at 11/7 and 11/2.
The Women’s Open final was an one sided affair where Mihiliya Methsarani beat Naduni Gunawardena in straight sets with the scores on 11/9,11/7 and 11/8. Both played a sensible game of squash going for rallies and front court winners. Mihiliya was very impressive collecting a lot of points with her front court deceptive drop shots. This was the maiden Senior National title for fifteen year old upcoming star from Sirimavo Balika Vidyalaya.
