Peterites create schools tennis history by winning the All-Island Under-19 Inter-Schools Championship
Completes the grand slam: wins all three Under-15, Under-17, and Under-19 age groups for the first time in history and bags the overall championship for the ninth time in the last 11 years
St. Peter’s College Colombo created a remarkable piece in schools tennis history by winning the All-Island Inter-School Under19 Tennis Championship, adding another feather to their victory cap after the AllIsland Under-15 and Under-17 titles won earlier this season.
With this victory they completed the schools grand slam by winning all three age groups as well as the All-Island Overall Schools Tennis Championship for the third successive year and the ninth time in the last 11 years. This championship was held at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association courts at Greenpath.
This is the first time that any school has won all three competitive age groups since it was introduced by the Ministry of Education. With more schools participating and more schools expending resources to the sport it is a remarkable achievement which cannot be surpassed but only equaled by any school in the future. By becoming the first school in this millennium to achieve this admirable feat Peterite tennis continues to grow from strength to strength.
Peterites going into this tournament were defending the All-Island Under-19 crown won last year under dramatic circumstances. The Peterites were in Group ‘A’ alongside Ananda College, Royal College, Trinity College and St. Benedict’s College. In Group ‘B’ were S. Thomas’ College, St. Joseph’s College, Colombo International School (CIS), St. Thomas’ College Matale and St. Sebastian’s College Moratuwa. Group ‘A’ was especially crucial as last year’s overall runners-up and perennial contenders Ananda and a Royal team focusing on the Under-19 age group was very competitive.
On the first day Royal and Ananda played each other in what was a crucial match to the group. With Royal laying down early markers with a 22/13 victory over the Anandians, Peterites were left to take on the Anandians on the second day. With their No.1 player Chehan Fernando fighting back from 0/3 deficit to beat Ananda’s top seed Akila Vimukthi, the Peterites also signaled that they were in this to make history with 23/12 win over the Anandians.
Then two heavyweights of the group came together with Royalists taking on the Peterites. With once again Chehan being pitted against B. Suren from Royal to whom he had lost badly a few weeks back at the Otters Tournament, this was another humdinger. Chehan focused solely on revenge the fired-up Peterites served notice to everyone that they mean business with a 23/12 win over the Royalists. With routine victories over the Trinitians and the Benedictines by all the schools the group was decided in favour of the Peterites being group champions and the Royalists coming second.
In the other group the Thomians pulled off the real surprise of the tournament when they beat a very strong CIS team. This meant that the semi-finals was set between the Royalists taking on the Thomians and the Peterites taking on CIS.
Tragedy struck the Peterites before the semi-finals when their skipper Davishka Ranasinghe fell ill and was under medical observation. However the Peterites playing as a unit surprised everyone with their shrewd tactics to outwit the strong CIS team, who were technically the favorites at the start of the tournament, to reach the final.
In the other semifinal the strong Thomians, who had earlier won their group, were 2/0 up against the Royalists in the best of five matches semi-final. But the Royalists had other ideas. With Nadil Silva pulling off a remarkable come from behind win in the match the Royalists went onto record a brilliant 3/2 victory over the Thomians in an extremely close match.
Thus the stage was set for another Peterite-Royal final. Then everything broke loose for the Peterites. Captain Davishka Ranasinghe was hospitalized with recurring high fever and suspected of pneumonia, Nabeel Sabri and Shanitha Perera were both down with viral flu and Chehan Fernando had injured his back.
With Davishka coming directly from hospital to the tennis courts two days later, promising to come back to the hospital immediately after the match and Chehan constantly complaining of pain in the spine and Shanitha and Nabeel barely recovered, all Peterite tactical plans were in disarray.
When the draw was exchanged it was immediately clear that the advantage was with the Royalists. The deciding match was most probably the second doubles between U. Dilshanth and Shanitha Perera for the Peterites and B. Suren and S. Kuganeshan for the Royalists. The Royal pair had beaten the Peterite pair 9/1 a few weeks back at the Otters Tournament where Royalist Suren had won a double in the Under-18 age group.
Chehan Fernando got the first point for the Peterites playing with limited movement and gingerly masking his back pain he beat the Royal captain Vikum Jayasuriya 6/3, 6/3. Then Davishka Ranasinghe suffering from extreme exhaustion teaming up with Nabeel Sabri pulled off a come-from-behind victory by winning the first doubles 6/7, 6/1, 6/1. The Peterites were 2/0 up. The Royalists hit back with Tharin Munasinghe pulling a match back for the royalists and then Nadil Silva equalled it all up by beating R. Krishanthan 6/1, 6/3 to make it 2/2. The final was all even and Royal had the psychological edge for the final match.
Peterites lost the first set on a tie break- er 6/7 and the royalists were delirious. Peterites were down again in the second set 3/2 but dug deep with remarkable courage to win the second set 6/4 to even the match. It was time for the heroes now. Royal pair of B. Suren and S. Kuganesh jumped into a early 3/1 lead in the final set. Peterites were hanging on by a thread. With the Peterite crowd urging more from their two players they remarkably fought back to get 4/3 lead. But the Royalists struck again by winning the next two games to lead 5/4. This was when the young Peterite team work and playing for each other came to the fore. Encouraging each other Petrites held on to make it 5/5 in the third set.
And then in a brilliant exhibition of returning broke Suren’s serve to take the lead 6/5. The crowd could barely watch as Shanitha served to make history. The Peterite pair got a 30/0 lead in the game but the royalists made it 30-all. With everyone watching with their hearts in the mouths Shanitha came up with a remarkable ace to give the Peterites a match point to make history. With Shanitha barely getting the second serve over the net in the final point Dilshanth brilliantly intercepted the return to put away a winner as all hell broke loose. The Peterite crowd, as well as some players, were in tears of exhaustion and joy as this remarkable group of young players achieved unbreakable history.
The team comprised of Davishka Ranasinghe, Shanitha Perera, Chehan Fernando, Nabeel Sabri, U. Dilshanth, R. Krishanthan, Ramin Dharmaratne and Nisheth Mendis.