Twofold triumph for Dineshkanthan

by Richard DWIGHT

The week long ITF Junior Circuit (week 2) tennis tournament which was brought to a close yesterday at the SLTA courts ended on a memorable note for T. Dineshkanthan who staved off a stiff challenge by the Korean, Chung Hyo Woo, to win the boys singles title 7/5, 6/3. Partaking Amresh Jayawickrema, on Friday he, together won the doubles title at 7/6 (7) 6/2. Despite suffering a minor set back in the previous tournament, Dineshkanthan, enhanced his reputation by his victories in the current tournament, of being a very promising player and a fine prospect of the Sri Lanka’s Davis Cup squad.

There was every indication of a terrific battle between Woo and Dineshkanthan in the first set. Both kept hitting hard to fault the other and placing the ball to score which found Woo pulling away to wrest the initiative from Dineshkanthan to lead 4 games to 1. Each game was fought hard before it was conceded and, it was at such a stage that Dineshkanthan did turn around, that saw him retrieve from the dismal position, to be on par with 4 games each. Things did even up with 5 games each, but thereafter Woo went on the defensive which was his undoing that saw Dineshkanthan forging ahead to win the morale boosting first set at 7/5.

Dineshkanthan having won a gruelling first set, was playing with much confidence in the second. Both were matching each other game for game and at the end of the sixth game were on par with 3 games each. But this is how far Woo could go for he remained at the 3 games won, whilst Dineshkanthan progressed to win the next 3 games in a row to win the second set at 6/3, the match and the singles title.

In Friday’s doubles singles finals Amresh Jayawickrema and Dineshkanthan combined effectively against the Indian duo of S. Sivakumar and V. Tirumurti to win a long drawn out first set at 7/6 (7). Both pairs were competent enough to be evenly matched but the Sri Lankans did have the edge over their Indian counterparts to win a fiercely fought out tense tie breaker set. In the second set Dineshkanthan and Jayawickrema had their way to make quite an impression to win the second set at 6/3 and the match and the doubles title.

Results Finals: Boys Singles: T. Dineshkanthan (SL) bt. C. H. Woo (Kor) 7/5, 6/3.