The combination of Sankha Athukorale and Neyara Weerawansa bounced back into recognition as they clinched the Mixed Doubles title in the Clay Court Tennis Nationals, which continued at the SLTA Courts in Green Path, Colombo yesterday.
Sankha and Neyara, who were eliminated from the Men’s and Women’s Singles final earlier, made amends by overcoming the more fancied pair of Dineshkanthan Thangaraja and Anika Seneviratne in an exciting final 6-7, 6-1, 10-5.
No doubt, this was a major setback especially for Anika, who was targeting a triple crown having already retained the Women’s Singles title for the third successive year and having entered the semi-finals of the Women’s Doubles along with her younger sister Alana.
In the Mixed Doubles final, Anika and her partner Dineshkanthan made a rousing start to their campaign as they snatched the opener 7-6 in an absolute thriller only to see them concede the second set rather tamely 1-6.
However, the third and deciding set went into a tie-breaker with Sankha and Neyara displaying tremendous courage and determination before pulling off a tense 10-5 victory in the end.
Meanwhile, top seed Thehan Wijemanne set up a final showdown in the Boys’ Under-18 Singles with the third seed Dhilvan Herath by winning their respective semi-final encounters.
Thehan pulled off a hard fought 7-5, 6-3 victory over the unseeded Jaitra De Saram while Dhilvan had the better of the seventh seed Wenuka Kithnula in a thrilling three setter 4-6, 6-3, 10-7.
In the Girls’ Under-18 Singles, fifth seed Oneli Perera of Asian International School cruised into the final with a stunning 7-6, 4-6, 10-5 victory over the top seed Tania Doloswala.
In contrast, the bottom seed Savini Jayasuriya of Gateway College enjoyed a convincing 6-0, 6-3 victory over the unseeded Vishmi Serasinghe in the second semi-final encounter.
