Women’s singles reaches quarter-final stage
The women’s singles of the 103rd National Tennis Championship which is in progress now at the SLTA tennis courts in Greenpath, Colombo have reached the knock-out stage with eight players making it to the quarter-finals.
Top seeded Janali Manamperi was given a fright by unseeded Oshini Herath before she prevailed with a 2-1 win to advance to the quarter-finals. The other seven players to qualify were second seeded Oneli Perera, third seeded Savini Jayasuriya, fourth seeded Anika Seneviratne, fifth and eighth seeded Anjalika Kurera and Senuri Alexander and unseeded players Rukshika Wijesooriya and Tania Doloswala.
In the men’s singles the top and bottom seeded players Sharmal Dissanayake and Dinehskanthan Thangarajah along with Delwar Hossain, Sankha Athukorala, Ruwan Fernando, Yasitha de Silva, Roston Ali, Chehan Fernando, Chathurya Nilaweera, Savith Weerasinghe who bagged the under 18 national singles title on Saturday, Liu-hui Retallick, Kevin Markandarajah, Heera Ashiq, Neshan Gunasekera, Vikum Jayasuirya and Nelaka Dissanayake will battle it out today for the quarter-final berths.
Meanwhile in the girls under 18 singles category the top and bottom seeded players Janali Manamperi and Savini Jayasuirya along with Sethmi Sumanaweera and Oshani Herath qualified to the semi-finals which is also scheduled to be played today.
In the boys under 16 category the second, fourth, fifth and eighth seeded players Luca Knese, Thehan Wijemanne,, Nelaka Dissanayaka and Chathurya Nilaweera who knocked out top seeded Rakesh Ratnasingham have booked the berth to the semi finals.
In the girls under 16 category unseeded player Oshani Herath qualified to the final when she overcame fifth seed Tania Doloswala in the semi final while second seeded Oneli Perera will clash with Anjalika Kurera for the other final slot today.
In the boys under 14 age group top and bottom seeded Anuth Wijesinghe and Apna Perera along with third and fourth seeded players Nelaka Dissanayake and Zaidh Zihar made it to the semi finals while in the girls under 14 category top and bottom seeded Tania Doloswala and Anjalika Kurera along with Tharani Alexander, Seneviratne, Dinethya Dharmaratne, Preethika Chandramohan, Tuvini de Alwis and Dewmini Warnasuriya advanced to the quarter-finals.
Top seeded player Hasali Gajaba will clash with sixth-seeded Charuni Thomas in the girls under 12 final while in the boys under 12 of the same age group Lisal Goonetileke (4), Nithila Goonetileke (5), Ransath Peiris (8) and Vichinthya Nilaweera (16) will battle it for the final berth. The matches are slotted to be played today from 8.30 am onwards.