Karunaratne brothers in final

Dilanka Mannakkara

Champion Shuttler Niluka Karunaratne has brought himself closer to another title as he beat the under 19 champion Nuwan Hettiarachchi 21/17, 21/14 in the men’s singles semi final match at the 58th Senior Badminton Nationals which continued at the Royal College Sports Complex yesterday.

Niluka and Nuwan were involved in two grueling sets of top class badminton and Niluka was even given a yellow card as a warning for misconduct in the match.

In the other semi-final match Dinuka Karunaratne beat Udara Nayanajith 21/16,21/14. In a twist of events in the quarter finals which was held in the morning, Udara Nayanajith came up with a giant killing performance to beat bottom seed Diluka Karunarathne to qualify for the semi finals.

In the women’s singles semi finals, veteran Chandrika de Silva was through to the finals by beating Gayani Perera. In the other semi-final young sensation Achini Ratnasiri beat Olympian Thilini Jayasinghe 13/21, 21/8, 21/9. In the women’s doubles semi finals top seeds Achini and Upuli had it easy against Chandrika and Nadeesha Gayanthi and were through to the finals.

The finals will commence at 2.30 pm today at the same venue.