Singles finals expected to produce top tennis

Richard Dwight

Early this morning a tense battle will ensure for supremacy in the men’s singles of the Sri Lanka tennis nationals at the SLTA, between two Davis Cup players, Harshana Godamanne and Rajeev Rajapakse.

Godamanne though unseeded locally, is an active trainee in Thailand, to be a dominant force on the Sri Lanka courts.

He has the reputation of having won quite a few championships and, his exceptional brilliance was evident in the way he smashed through to this final.

Rajapakse not to be outdone, is a competent player in his own right, having been in the forefront of Sri Lanka tennis as a seeded player did well to get past his opponents in the preliminary and semi-final matches.

Both did give impressive displays in last year’s Davis Cup tie held last year, and it all points to an interesting duel today. In the semis reigning champ Amrith Rupasinghe was defeated by Rajeev Rajapakse, and Harshana Godamanne got past Dinuk Ranaweera.

The Women’s singles finals also takes place this morning and it will be between No. 3 Jithmie Jayawickreme, the singles champion for the past three years and Nilupul Goonesekera, the No. 2. Both Jithmie and Nilupul played consistently well in the earlier round matches and the semis, and a keen tussle between the two are expected today.

Jithmie who is hoping to make it four wins in a row has been coached by Ganendran Subramaniam who says that Jithmie will be in India next month to take part in the Commonwealth competition and thereafter proceed for further training in Thailand.

In the preliminary mixed doubles matches Nilupul Goonesekera and Dinusha Wijesuriya beat Shenalie Weerasekera and N. Sivendran 6/4, 2/6, 6/4.

Udanthi Narahenpitage and Harshana Godamanne beat Ajini Gunawardena and Sumedha Weerasuriya 6/1, 6/1.

Mixed double results are Kehma Herath/Rukmal Cooray bt Amrith Muttiah/G. Weerasekera 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. Jithmi Jayawickrama/ Rajeev Rajapaksa w/o from Nilushi Fernando / N. Casiechetty.