The Sri Lanka Tennis Association’s head coach, Sudantha Soysa has been suspended from work temporarily for disciplinary reasons, SLTA president Maxwell de Silva told ‘The Island’ on Monday (19).

Soysa was involved in an alleged brawl where he had hit another tennis coach named Raj Kumar, an assistant coach who is working under Ganendran Subramaniam at the Nondescripts Cricket Club, following an argument over a dispute at the Hill Club Open Ranking Tennis Tournament, last week, at Nuwara Eliya. Kumar, suffering from cut injuries to his head, is still receiving treatment at the Colombo Gen. Hospital.

"We had to impose the temporary suspension, until the conclusion of an inquiry into the incident. Our Outstation Development Official, Bharathi (Raj Pillai), will oversee the ongoing coaching programme for the time being. Anyway, we had shortlisted an Argentine coach to take over SLTA coaching from next July," de Silva said.

It is alleged that Soysa, who has been heading the most important tennis coaching programme in the country, for nearly five months, had assaulted Kumar in the presence of players, some of their parents and officials at the N’Eliya Hill Club.