Sudharshan dethrones Subramaniam

IT took exactly a quarter of a century to produce a new Travel Trade Sports Club Tennis Champion. The 35-year-old, K. A. Sudarshana of Trans Asia Hotel, playing at home created history when he dethroned the defending singles Champion, since its inception in 1980.

Ravi Subramaniam (46) of Aitken Spence Travels, when the 25th Annual TTSC Tennis Championships, sponsored by Cinnamon Grand, continued for the second day at the Trans Asia Hotel clay courts on Wednesday.

In a heart stopping, two hour battle, Sudarshana tipped Subramaniam, 2 sets to 1 in a best of three final. It took only 15 minutes for the defending Champion to take the first set at 6-1.

Sudarshana spurred by good home support and correcting his earlier mistakes rebounded to equalize, 6/3 in 50 minutes. Now Sudarshana having put the tiring champion by the ropes, took an early 5-1 lead in the deciding set.

Sudarshana somewhat loosening the rope at this stage saw Subramaniam coming back to bridge the gap and forge ahead at 6-5. The ferocious cheering saw Sudarshana equalizing at 6 all and the game going into the tie-breaker and over the 60 minutes mark.

Despite leg cramps, Sudarshana using his strong back hand to good advantage took the set (7-6), the match and the singles crown.

In the veterans segment, Subramaniam took the singles title for the 07th successive year beating Camelot Beach's P. Upali 9/4 in a best of 17 games final.

As the rain came down, the other two finals, the open doubles and the veterans doubles had to be postponed to Monday, January 16 at 3.00 pm.

In the Opens doubles final, Trans Asia's, U. V. Nishantha and K. A. Sudarshana will meet the Negombo Pair, P. Upali (Camelot Beach) and Siras Dhammika (Browns Beach), while in the Veterans doubles final it will be Ravi Subramaniam and Asoka Rodrigo (Neptune Hotel) vs. P. Upali and Maxwell Hutchinson (Taj Airport Garden Hotel).