It was a chaotic Monday at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association playing section where defending champion Medhira Samarasinghe saw defeat to Thisuri Molligoda and top seed B Suren had to walk home after being defeated by #8 seed Avindra Perera.

Eighteen year old Thisuri Molligoda caused the biggest uproar at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association in the under 18 singles title semi final clash defeating the defending champion Medira Samarasinghe to secure her spot in the finals.

Thisuri Molligoda’s national titles hopes sped forth when she defeated the sixteen year old Medhira Samarasinghe 6-0, 6-2 to get her qualification through. The first set started off on a very bad note for Samarasinghe where her shots had the distance but lacked direction. The Visakhian Thisuri Molligoda seeing that there was only one set that stood between her and the finals, made sure she didn’t allow her counterpart to pass through. Despite Samrasinghe fighting back in the middle sets, it was not sufficient  to stop Molligoda’s urge for the silverware as she went on to win the set 6-2.

It will be a battle between the Visakhians in the celebrated under 18 singles final where Thisuri will have to face her friend and colleague Nethmi Waduge. The recently crowned Colombo Championship winner got her ticket to the finals with ease defeating #4 seed Rukshika Wijesoriya 6-1, 6-0. This in fact is the first instance where we would see both Nethmi Waduge and Thisuri Molligoda in the same court on opposite ends and it will be an interesting final in the offing. The center court of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association will host the final game which is expected to be played tomorrow the 12th of August.

It was disappointment for the Royalist Suren who had to face defeat to Avindra Perera. The semi final game that started off on even grounds went on to take a different twist in the mid stages of play when Avindra Perera broke the even-steven score to reach six points to take the first set. Suren’s fight back in the second was a disappointment yet again as Perera raced to 6 games to win the quarterfinal draw. The game ended  6-4, 6-4 in Perera’s favor.

Avindra Perera will hence face Peterite Chehan Fernando in the semi final match which will see a start this afternoon. On the other semi finals are unseeded players Aadavan Pushparaj & Savit Weerasinghe. The victor of the two semi final encounters will meet on Thursday for the final game.

Play to resume at 8.00 a.m.