DINESHKANTHAN - JAYAWICKRAMA, THEWUNI -MEDIRA CLINCH DOUBLES
BY M. SHAMIL AMIT
The doubles finals of the men's and women's categories of the 98th Sri Lanka Nationals Tennis Championship worked off at the SLTA hard courts yesterday saw two contrasting results.
In the men's category as expected the top seeded pair of Thangarajah Dineshkanthan and Amresh Jayawickrama lived up to their expectations as the favourites for the title when they brushed off the challenge of Sanka Athukorale and Rajeev Rajapakse to the finale by three straight sets in the five set encounter.
In the women's contest Thewuni Devaraja and Medira Samarasinghe continued their giant killing performance after their stun- ning semi-final win over the number one seeded pair of Amritha Muttiah and Shalini de Silva when they defeated Hasindi Lokuge and Rukshika Wijesuriya to lift the title.
In another final worked off the day which was the Wheel Chair Tennis doubles saw the number one seed pair of D.M. Gamini and L.D.S. Liyanage taking the title overcoming K.A. Dharmakeerti and W.P.J. Wijesiri.
The final day's proceedings are due to start off at 8.30 a.m. today with women's singles final between defending champion Amritha Muttiah and Roshenka Fernando. The finals of the wheel chair tennis singles and the men's over 35 doubles will also be worked off concurrently.
The afternoon session of play will see the final of the men's singles between Thangarajah Dineshkanthan and Sanka Athukorale being worked which will culminate with men's over 45 doubles final due to played at 4.00 p.m.