Vimuktha U-16 singles champ

Richard DWIGHT

With the oncoming Sri Lanka tennis Nationals set to commence on Saturday, the SLTA did well to bring to a close the Junior Tennis Nationals well ahead of schedule, with the remaining few finals to be worked off today at the SLTA courts.

The 15-day Junior Tennis Nationals turned to be memorable for the Junior Davis Cup player, Vimuktha De Alwis who qualified for two finals fiz; the boys under 16 Singles finals and, the finals of the junior singles (U18).

In the junior singles (Under 18) in the semi-finals on Tuesday he got the better of Davis Cup player, Guyanaga Weerasekera. Today at 2.00 p.m. he will be up against the standby Davis Cup player, Dinesh Kanthan. Both are as good as the other, with Dinesh with his experience having the edge over Vimuktha and a good tussle is expected between the two.

In the boys under 16 singles finals, Vimuktha, did not raise as much as a sweat, to easily overhaul, Thurana Eswarage to win the title.

An equally interesting clash was witnessed in the boys under 14 singles between Nadaraja Nishangan and Sharmal Dissanayake. they matched each other stroke for stroke and were involved in long drawn-out rallies, but with deft placements, Sharmal took the first set. The second set saw a hard fight point for point, leading upto the tie-braker with Sharmal eventually wining the under 16 tennis singles.

Result: Boys - Singles U-10 semi-finals - A. Pushparaj bt: J. Rajapakse 9/6, A Muttiah bt: T. Wijeratne 9/0.

U-14 Finals - S. Dissanayake bt: N. Nishangan 6/3, 7/5.

U-16 Finals - V.D.E. Alwis bt: T. Eswarage 6/0, 6/1.

Doubles U-18 Semi finals - D. Kanthan and A. Jayawickrema bt: Y. Dewage and E. Jayamanne 6/1, 6/2. G. Weerasekera and S. G. Gomesz bt: A. Dep and V. De Alwis 6/2, 6/4.