Young'uns battle for men's singles title at Tennis Nationals

By Lal Gunesekera

TENNIS: This year's National Championships of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) is tagged as the Mercedes Benz Nationals and will be conducted for the first time on its newly constructed hard courts at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) at Greenpath from August 13 to 26.

The President of the SLTA, Janaka Bogollagama, told the Sunday Observer that Dimo has got themselves involved in tennis, which is certainly good for the game. Dimo who assisted with the training of Sri Lanka's Davis Cup squad recently to the tune of Rs. 2.5 million, has pumped in Rs. 600,000/= for the Nationals. He thanked Ranjith Pandithage of Dimo for his involvement with tennis and generous sponsorship packages.

The men's singles event will be minus the young "star" Harshana Godamanna who won the title for the past two years (2005 and 2006). Soon after representing the country at the Davis Cup in Colombo last month (July), Godamanna, returned to Thailand to continue with his training under Swiss coach Dominiq Utzinger who runs an Academy in Bangkok.

Also missing the action at the Nationals is Renouk Wijemanne who has returned to the USA after the Davis Cup, and the men's singles title this year will be fought out among some young, talented players in the calibre of Sanka Athukorale, Dinusha Wijesuriya and Michael Siyaguna.

Also vying for the title will be Davis Cup player Rajiv Rajapakse.

The favourite for the women's singles title will be Jithmi Jayawickreme, the 16-year-old girl from Bishop's College who won the title for the past two years (2005 and 2006). She will receive a big challenge from Nilupul Gunasekera and Amritha Muttiah.