Senior Tennis Nationals:

Harshana cut above the rest

Angu RAJENDRAN

In both the semi – final matches played at the SLTA yesterday – Harshana Godamanne proved to be a star. In the men’s open semi final against Junior Champion Vimuktha De Alwis, Harshana literally smashed him out of the court with his unbelievably powerful left-handed serves.

Harshana beat Vimuktha in three straight sets – 61 60 61. Vimuktha was unable to take the angle of the powerful left-handers forehand shots. He gave in easily to the years of experience of Sri Lanka’s number one player. The other semi final between Dineshkanthan Thangaraja and Sharmal Dissanayake will be played tomorrow.

In the doubles semi-final too, Harshana and his partner Rajiv Rajapakse – both Davis Cup players lived up to their reputation and took it easy with Dineshkanthan Thangaraja and Amresh Jayawickrama to win with a score of 63 76 62.

In the women’s section third seed Roshenka Fernando looks forward to her semi finals with second seed Kemalie Herath today. She is the junior national champion and is in top form.

The very interesting semi final between Thisuri Molligoda who has come a long way from Under 14 champion to the Open Women’s semi final and Top Seed Amritha Muthiah will also be played today.

Thisuri has beaten under 16 champion Nilushi Fernando.

SLTA is resounding with splendid tennis for connoisseurs.