Tennis Nationals open singles finalists found

Thushan JAYASURIYA

Fourth seed Amritha Muttiah with a dazzling performance created a major upset in the semi-finals of the women’s singles by beating second seed Roshenka Fernando (4/6, 6/2, 6/0) after a tough battle in the 97th National Tennis Championship continued at SLTA courts yesterday. Though Amritha went down in the first set, she came up with an excellent performance in the following two sets to book her berth in the final.

Meanwhile third seed Nethmi Waduge beat Shankari Thayakaran in straight sets (6/4,6/4) without much trouble in the other singles semi-final.

In the men’s singles semi- final, Tanvir Ashiq beat Nishangan Nadaraja (6/1, 7/6, 5/7, 6/4). Tanvir fought hard to win the second set after winning the first set easily. Nadaraja came back to the game and won the third set but could not able to maintain his control in the fourth set and conceded the victory to Tanvir .

First seed T.Dineshkanthan beat Sharmal Dissanayake after closely contested four sets (7/6,3/6,7/6,6/2) and will meet Tanvir in the final.

Meanwhile in the Junior National boys’ under 14 doubles final, Joshua Jayaratne partnered by Krishanthan Rajendrasingam beat Viranka Fernando and Nabeel Sabri in easy straight sets (6/4,6/2).