Cinnamon Lakeside Open Tennis to breath new life

Anuradha Abeysekera

The annual Cinnamon Lakeside, Colombo Open Ranking Tennis Championship will be commenced from November 26 and will continue till December 6 at the hotel clay courts. Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) in collaboration with Cinnamon Lakeside hosting the event in accordance with International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the SLTA code of conduct.

SLTA has included this ranking tournament as a 'B' grade event in their annual calendar and has become a popular event in the Sri Lankan tennis fraternity over the years. After a brief laps due to hotel's refurbishment and court renovation, the tournament will see its third edition once again emerging as a prominent event in the local tennis scene.

Nearly 500 entries are expected to receive including all the elite players in the country. In the previous edition the championship received 400 entries and almost all the national level players took part in the tournament.

The organizers have informed that the entries will close on November 21 and the draw will be taking place on November 24. Seedings have been posted on hotel's powerdrome notice board from early November and will be finalized after the entries are closed.

Standard Chartered Bank joined hands with Cinnamon Lakeside for the first time as the main sponsors of the championship assuring a high standard in every sphere. The skillful services of hotel's powerdrome along with health and fitness club will be a great strength for the organizers to stage the event in grand style.

Allowing maximum number of participation in both junior and senior categories, the championship will include boys and girls age category events from under 10 to 18 apart from the open singles/doubles for men and women.

The championship will use 'Head' balls as the official ball provided by its agent 3G Sports and Anjoun Subramaniam will be the SLTA appointed match referee while N.S Jayashantha is the Tournament Director appointed by the hotel who has successfully spearheaded the project each time before. Attractive cash prizes are on offer for the winners apart from coveted trophies and will be awarded at the prize distribution ceremony on the final day of the championship.

SLTA President Iqbal Bin Ishack, Standard Chartered Head of Consumer Banking Sanjay Wijemanne, Cinnamon Lakeside GM Denis Gruhier, its Recreation Manager Manoj Kapukotuwa and Rooms Division Director Mirza Fajudeen and large number of media personnel were present at the press conference.