CIS Girls win Tennis C’ships

Angu Rajendran

Colombo International girls beat Asian International in the finals of the International Schools Tennis Championships for girls at the SLTA courts over the weekend.

Playing on the clay courts, the young CIS team which emerged the All Island Under 15 tennis champions won their group matches and beat British School in the semi-finals 2-1 and went on to play AIS in the finals.

Rishmitha Sivakanthan, the captain of the AIS girls team won the first single 9-3 against Melissa of CIS. In the doubles Nithya Amalean and Samantha Bastian of CIS had an easy time over Sanjana Ravi and Sudhara Niriella of AIS beating them 9-3.

In the last and final decider - young Rukshana Abdeen, Year Seven student of CIS was confident to play Hasini Dharmawardene of AIS to win the championships 9-2 for CIS. Rukshana Abdeen who had not lost a single match in the championship was also declared the Best Player in the Girls Championships.

In the boys championships, Thilip Ravindran of AIS saved the day for his team when playing in the fifth tie and second doubles for his school, after playing ‘the worst game of my life,’ we decided to go- all out when the AIS team was down 8-5 and made an amazing comeback. CIS boys - Birendra and Thilan made many unforced errors at the crucial moments of the match and allowed the AIS doubles into the tie-breaker.

For AIS Thaquib Nazar (captain) beat Joshua Jayaratne (CIS) 9-0, Nadir Nazar and T Naythran beat Nikolai and Adavan of CIS 9-1 while Aaqil Gaffoor of CIS beat Sawin Jayasekara (AIS) 9-4, Viranka Fernando beat Maduka of AIS 9-3, Thilip Ravindran and Anthony Silva beat Birendra and Thilan of CIS.

AIS won the semi-final 3-2. AIS will now meet Lyceum Nugegoda next weekend in the final.