Teenage heroics continue at Tennis Nationals 2020

Sixteen-year-old Chathurya Nilaweera continued to turn tables on senior players when he paired Thehan Wijemanne to win the men’s doubles title against fancied Yasitha de Silva and Sankha Atukorale at the Tennis Nationals 2020 on Tuesday.

By winning the final they became the youngest pair ever to have won the title in the more than 100 years old tournament. Incidentally, Thehan’s father Sanjaya and Rohan de Silva were 17 and 18 years old when they won the men’s doubles title in 1989. Thehan is 17 years old.

On their way to the title they also turned tables on defending champions Sharmal Dissanayake and Rukmal Cooray.

The doubles title is the highest accomplishment achieved at the Nationals by the duo who also fared well in the singles. While Thehan reached the last 16 round in the singles, Nilaweera impressed featuring in the semi final where he was beaten by the eventual champion Yasitha de Silva.

In the women’s doubles Savini Jayasuriya and Janali Manamperi ousted fancied defending champions Anika Seneviratne and her sister Alana to win the title. They scored 6-3, 3-6, 10-3 to clinch the title. Incidentally, Jayasuriya and Manamperi were Anika’s opponents in the singles semi-final and the final respectively. (RF)