Harshana-a tennis player par excellence

Angu Rajendran

‘Harshana Godamanne has been my student since he was three years old. Even at that time he showed the same desire to win as he does now,’ says Harshana’s coach Sylvester Francis. Harshana is leagues ahead of any other tennis player in the country.

Like Roger Federer his idol, Harshana can be an attacking player, a defensive player, great at volleys and has amazing serves and forehand shots. ‘I have learnt so much by watching Federer play’ says Harshana. ‘I have never really seen the man in person but I watch him on tv. Even his amazing between – the –legs shot at the US Open. There has never been a player like him in the world ever,’ says twenty five year Harshana. ‘I just want to be like him both on and off the court.’ For Sri Lanka, Harshana is just that. The most versatile player with an unbeaten record in the last five years.

What does he think of left-hander Nadal?(Harshana is also a left-handed player). ‘He is a grinder. He has no variation. He is nowhere in the class of Federer, says Harshana

Harshana virually has no competition in Sri Lanka. He is that much better than any other player. As his coach says ‘Harshana has always focused on his game. Most players are bothered about social niceties. Not Harshana. He is pleasant enough. He does not fight but he never gives away even one game easily. He is on the court to play not fool around.’

Harshana agrees. He says ‘however easy or difficult a match may seem, I play really hard. I know the scores in most of my matches look one-sided but that is never so. I work so so hard in every match. I pull out every good shot in every match even though I may be playing an easy opponent.’

Who does he think is his best competition? ‘No one really,’ says Harshana and then he laughs at himself and says ‘Sorry, I think there are a few good players who make me think during the match. Like Dineshkanthan who I am going to play in the finals of the Open Championships today. He has improved a lot and I think he is good.’

His favorite doubles partner is Rajiv Rajapakse. ‘Any doubles match and I will only play with Rajiv. He was the champion before me. He is senior to me and about five years ago I beat him at the Open Nationals finals,’ says Harshana.

Harshana assesses any player within minutes of playing with them in a match. It takes me a game, at the most two, to assess a player. And then I am ready to take on any one. In Sri Lanka I never have bad days in a match. When I play abroad, then I have good days and bad days. Those guys play so much of tennis too.’

Harshana’s best moment was when he was in a match against New Zealander Daniel King Turner ‘when I beat him in five sets in March this year. The New Zealander is ranked world number 122. ’ At that time I was not ranked at all.’ Now Harshana who has been playing International tennis for the last two and half years is ranked 1050 in the world.

It is indeed a proud moment for Sri Lanka to have a world ranking player with us. But Harshana does not think he can survive with tennis alone in this country unlike in most European countries. He is a student of American National College in Colombo and is reading for a degree.’ I wish I could just play tennis all the time’ says this soft spoken, yet confident young man. ‘But in this country you have to get a degree, get a job and get on with your life. No one is going to support your tennis for too long,’ says Harshana who practically lives at the SLTA and has put in about 21 years of non-stop tennis.

‘I just love tennis . I can play it all the time. The twenty five year old Davis Cup player is constantly improving his style and technique. Being a left-hander definitely helps. The angle at which his powerful forehand shots come at the opponent are very different and so much more difficult to handle.

Harshana got into tennis at Royal College at the age of three as his older brother started playing tennis. Sylvester Francis has been his coach from then to now. Sylvester’s advice to him has always been ‘when you are on the court, do your job to the best of your ability. Don’t try to be socializing and making friends on the court. All that is off-court.’

Harshana has put in more hours of tennis than most players put together. He dreams big dreams and will surely get there soon and make the country proud. Who knows, Harshana may very soon be Sri Lanka’s first Wimbledon player.