Dineshkanthan, Anika bag second title
Mix Double winners Dineshkanthan Thangarajah and Anika Seneviratne (R) greet Chehan Fernando and Anya Gunawardena (L) after the match - Pic by M.A. Pushpakumara
It was a tale of a foursome in Tennis. On Friday, Dineshkanthan paired Sanjeev Mohankumar to win the men’s double title. Then in the women’s doubles Anika Seneviratne partnered Alana Seneviratne to bag the respective title. Then they parted ways to form the mixed doubles pairs. There Dineshkanthan Thangarajah and Anika Seneviratne bagged their second titles of the 103rd Colombo Championship at the SLTA tennis courts in Greenpath, Colombo yesterday.
The pair coasted to an easy two sets to nil win against the pair Arvind Fernando and Shenali Weerasekera with scores of 6/1, 6/2 in the final. Nelaka Dissanayake too won his second title of the tournament. Nelaka earlier bagged the under 14 boys singles title and he defeated Chathurya Nilaweera in the final yesterday to take the under 16 boys singles title.
In the other finals that were played yesterday saw Sandaru Guruge and Ruvi Lewkebandara emerge champions in the boys and girls under 12 singles category while Tania Doloswala and Savini Jayasuriya bagged the under 14 and 16 girl’s singles titles.
In the doubles finals that were played saw Sandaru Guruge partnered by Ransith Peiris take the under 12 boys title for Sandaru to bag his second title. Top seeded Vibuda and Vinuja Wijebandara overcame the pair of Innthujan Selvaratnarajah and Mark Seneviratne to emerge champions in the boys under 18 doubles event.
Meanwhile midway during the tournament Anjalika Kurera a 14 year old student of Ave Maria Convent and the seventh seeded player pulled off a stunning win against the much fancied and third seeded Anika Seneviratne whom she outclassed with ease by 2-0 in the women’s open singles final to emerge champion.
In fact Anjalika only two weeks ago shocked the tennis fraternity with a stunning win over another hot favourite Janali Manemperi in the SSC Women’s Open final and she carried that confidence to this tournament with success.
Sharmal Dissanayake kept up to his reputation when he bagged the men’s title with a win over second seeded Dineshkanthan Thangarajah in a match that went to the wire by 2-1 with scores of 6/2, 6/3, 7/5.
In the other finals that were completed earlier saw Nelaka Dissanayake, Savit Weerasinghe and Janali Manemperi emerging champions in the boys under 14, boys under 18 and under 18 girls age group categories
In the two open doubles events saw the top seeded pair of Dinehskanthan Thangarajah and Sanjeev Mohankumar taking the men’s title and two sisters and second seeded Anika Seneviratne and Alana Seneviratne clinching the women’s title.