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Almost all top players in the present National scene are taking part in this year’s Singhalese Sports Club (SSC) Open Ranking (‘A’ Grade) Tennis Tournament, now on at the five (5) club clay courts at Maitland Place, Colombo.
The event, hampered severely by intermittent Colombo rains over the last two weeks, is scheduled to be over next weekend.
Top seeded Harshana Godamanne [Sri Lanka’s only Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world ranked player who carries a world rank of 931 at present], Sankha Atukorale, Guyanga Weerasekera (seeded 4), Artha Hewacottege (6) (all Sri Lanka Davis Cup team members), and Michael Siyaguna, Thangarajah Dineshkanthan (bottom seed), Amresh Jayawickrema (3), Shehan Gomesz (7), Yasas Dewage (8), Ashan Dep (5), Indika Wettasinghe, Chinthaka Shaveen, Danuk Withana, Thuruna Eswarage, M.A. Shakir and Madusha Wijesuriya are the key players featuring in this year’s 32-player Men’s Open Singles main draw.
Women’s Open –
In Women’s Open Singles, Amreetha Muttiah, a Fed Cup rep for Sri Lanka and the title defender in that category, is the top seed while Tavindra Ekanayake is seeded No.2.
Other top players in contention in Women’s Open Singles are: Roshenka Fernando (3), Sherene Wijesinghe (4), Kemali Herath, Shenali Weerasekera, Shankari Thayakaran, Shanelle Abeysekera, Nilushi Fernando and former National champion and veteran campaigner Shalini de Silva.
The Men’s Doubles too is set to provide some excitement as the tough current Davis Cup campaigner Rajeev Rajapakse is partnering Godamanna to carry the top seed tag. The duo will, though, face a stiff resistance from the bottom seed pair of former leading Davis Cup stalwarts Rohan de Silva and Jayendra Wijeysekera.
The other hot contenders in Men’s Doubles will be Hewacottege partnering Siyaguna, Dineshkanthan and Amresh Jayawickrema, and Atukorale who will be partnering another former Davis Cup player and National champion, the USA-based Amrith Rupasinghe.
In Mixed Doubles, Godamanna will be pairing up with Shalini de Silva (the top seed pair) and are expected to be tested by the bottom seed pair of Rajapakse and Muttiah.
Enter Quarter-finals -
Meanwhile the quarter-finals of both Girls and Boys Under-10 and Girls Under-12 age groups were set to be held since last Tuesday (June 30) amid rain interruptions.
Promising St. Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya, schoolboy, Nishangan Nadarajah became the 1st to enter the quarter-finals of the Under-14 Boys’ Singles.
Nadarajah, and two of his schoolmates, Aritha Weerasinghe (seeded No.1) and Aaron Assauw, featured prominently in this Under-14 draw.
It was incidentally the same three players who made to this year’s Sri Lanka National Under-14 team that toured Malaysia for the World Junior Boys’ Qualifying Round International Tennis Federation (ITF) regional junior competition last May. It was, indeed, an honor to that leading Colombo school.
‘A’ Grade Standard –
With the start of the Women’s Open Singles, the main open events of this year’s SSC Open began early last week.
Other than the Colombo Championships, which is set to begin later this month and organised by the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) Playing Section, and the Sri Lanka Tennis Nationals (both Senior and Junior Nationals) are the two long standing ‘A’ Grade open ranking tennis tournaments in the country before SSC’s prize-money-rich open competition attracted the highest local standard, the Grade ‘A,’ a few years ago by the SLTA when it was under its President Janaka Bogollagama.
Added Facilities for Outstation Participants –
The Under-12 Girls and Boys Singles which began early last week marked the beginning of the Main Draw events following days of Qualifying Rounds of the junior events that are participated this year with a marked interest.
The main feature of this year’s SSC Open, held for the 7th consecutive year this time, is the extra facilities the club provides for the participants from outstations.
This will be the first tennis tournament in recent history where free accommodation is provided for its participants. For the outstation players, accommodation is provided at the SSC player quarters during the entire tournament.
This Year’s Title sponsors:
Bank of Ceylon, Demo, Excel Trading, HNB Assurance, Dialog, Ole, Fontera and 3G Sports, the Sri Lanka and Maldives agents for Head sports products.
Officials:
Aruna Seneviratne is the Tournament Director of the SSC Open while Ishara Seneviratne, an ITF White Badge umpire, is the Tournament Referee.
