Upali and Gamini win singles and doubles in Indonesian Open

Anuradha ABEYSEKERA

Upali Rajakaruna and D. M. Gamini made Sri Lanka proud by winning both singles and doubles titles in the inaugural BII Indonesian Open '2011 Wheelchair Tennis Championship' worked off at the Manahan tennis court, Solo, Indonesia recently.

Sri Lanka's number one Upali Rajakaruna created a major upset in the tournament when he beat the top seed of the draw, Thailand player Suwitchai Merengporn in straight sets 6-3,6-7,7-5 to clinch the singles title.

Rajakaruna together with Gamini beat the Thailand/Indonesian pair Suwcchai and Ajus 8/6 in the doubles championship final as the match was altered to one set due to the bad weather conditions.

With this achievement both Rajakaruna and Gamini have been upgraded in their world ranking.

Raja who ranked as world number 80 climbed 10 steps and placed as number 70 while Gamini who was the number 94 has been uplifted to 84. This is a tremendous achievement by both our players as they performed better than many foreign elite players who are maintaining high profiles in the international wheelchair tennis scene. Altogether 30 wheelchair tennis players representing Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan and Sri Lanka participated in the tournament.

The championship has been included in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) calendar.