Two promising shuttlers Viren Nettasinghe and Dumindu Abeywickrama excelled at the men's open event to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the SSC Open Badminton championships which is now in progress at the SSC and Mercantile Badminton courts. The tournament is sponsored by Li-Ning and organized by the SSC badminton section.
Both Viren and Dumindu are in same 17-year age group but they have shown their potential playing against seniors in this tournament.
Actually Dumindu was not even in the main draw and he had to play a qualifying round to enter the main draw.
Dumindu the top seed of the under 17 age category defeated Lahiru Weerasinghe in the men's open second round in hard fought three setter 21/15, 16/21, 21/17 to enter the pre-quarterfinal while Viren made won in straight sets 21/11, 21/13 to join Dumindu in the pre-quarters.
Meanwhile top seed Ranthushka Sasindu, Venura Pallewatta, Chamath Dias, Sethum Perera, Hansa Sandaruwan, Nadun Punchihewa, Hasitha Chanaka, Nilesh Wijesekara and Anjana Arosh entered the pre-quarterfinals of the men's open singles. Roshan Padmakumara, Vikum Fernando, Chiran Sudeera, Mahen Wijesundera and bottom seed Maduka Dulanjana also qualified to play in the pre-quarterfinals after recording wins in the second round.
Meanwhile in the girls under 17 first round matches played yesterday evening there were no major upsets.
Today the sixth day of the tournament most of the senior players will compete in the open men's, open women's and mixed doubles events. In addition family mixed doubles event quarterfinals are also scheduled to be played 7.30 pm onwards. Already most of the age group events have been completed upto the pre-quarterfinals. The finals are scheduled for January 27 Sunday.
Add new comment