Savinaka Weerasekera and Ranithma Liyanage won the men’s and women’s open singles titles at the Mercantile Open Badminton Championship held a in Colombo on Sunday.
Ranithma Liyanage the 18 year old promising shuttler managed to defeat Warangana Jayawardene 21-12, 21-14 to win the women’s singles title.
Ranithma Liyanage the current National women’s champion claimed a double by winning the mixed open doubles title along with Alan Dharmasaputra.
Savinaka Weerasekara defeated Lochana de Silva 21-17, 8-21, 21-14 in the men’s open singles final. Oshamika Karunaratne and Tulith Palliaguru won the men’s open doubles title by defeating Dinuru Rashmika Priyashantha and Siyath Dulneth Senaratne in a thrilling three-setter with a scoreline of 21-17, 18-21 and 21-17, while Anurangi Hansamala Maskorala and Vidara Suhasni Vidanage managed to win the women’s open doubles title by defeating Rashmi Bhagya and Warangana with scores of 21-19 and 21-18.
In the open mixed doubles final, Marcelo Vittorio and Praveena Jayasundara lost to Ranithma and Dharmasaputra 15-21, 14-21.
In the under-19 boys’ singles final, Shenuk Samararatne won the boys’ singles title by defeating Thilina Rajakaruna 21-19, 21-10, while the girls’ singles title in the same age group was won by Amantha Thathsarani who defeated Rukshika Baskaran 21-16, 20-22, 21-16 in the final.
The boys’ doubles title in the same age group was won by Rithira Sendhil Abeygunawardena and Thenul Ransaja Ganewatta who defeated Sanjula Handapangodage and Shenuk Samararatne 21-16, 8-21, 21-19 in another thriller.
The Tournament was organised by the Mercantile Badminton Association under the auspices of Sri Lanka Badminton and took place at the SLB and Lumbini College indoor courts.
This Mercantile Open Badminton Championship also acted as a level-one ranking tournament while tournament was sponsored by McFoil, Mobil, Li Ning, 3M, and GAC and this was good platform for the shuttlers of Mercantile sector.
Dhammika Ratnaweera