Sharmal and Nethmi set to retain title
Sri Lanka’s defending junior national champion Sharmal Dissanayake has put himself in a strong position to retain the Under 18 title for the second successive year when he advanced to the semi-finals on day two of the 98th Sri Lanka Junior Tennis Nationals played at the SLTA hard courts in Greenpath yesterday.
The top seeded Sharmal coasted to a convincing 2-0 win over Yasitha de Silva in one of the quarter-finals that were worked off. Second seed Nishangan Nadarajah too had an easy quarter final passage when he outwitted sixth seeded Supun Pathirage with easeIn the other two quarter finals that were played on day two saw third seeded Aritha Weerasinghe undergoing some anxious moments before pulling off a 2-1 win over fifth seed Avishka Perera while seed number four Dhanushka Abeywardena had little difficulty in brushing aside the challenge of Joshua Moraes.
The two semi-finals are scheduled to be played today with Sharmal meeting Aritha and the other between Dhanushka and Nishangan, both games will be worked off at 8.00 a.m.
Meanwhile in the Under 16 girls’ category top seeded Nethmi Waduge too looks set to retain the title she won last year. Nethmi along with third and fourth seeded Kavindya de Silva and Thisuri Molligoda have qualified for the semi finals while Rukshika Wijesuriya was the fourth to qualify when she overcame second seed Thewuni
The two semifinals are scheduled to be played today with Sharmal meeting Aritha and the other between Dhanushka and Nishangan
Devaraja with a thrilling 2-1 win.
The two semi-finals will be played today with the first at 8.00 a.m. which will be between Kavindya and Rukshika while the second semi between Nethmi and Thisuri is due to be played at 2.30 p.m.