Sri Lanka Men’s national champion Dineshkanthan Thangarajah continues to be the best in the country in a ranking list, dominated by national players who play overseas, while the top spot in the Women’s national rankings is shared by the defending champion Amritha Muttaiah and eighteen year old Thisuri Molligoda.
The rankings, which were released by the Sri Lanka Tennis Association, have been awarded for the 2015 season which began in September 2014 and will conclude at the end of this month.
ThePapare.com takes a peek into the Sri Lankan tennis rankings and how they have changed during the twelve month period starting from September 2014.
The Men’s Arena
The 24 year old Dineshkanthan has been holding on to his #1 ranking from the very first week of the calendar year 2015 amassing a total of 1200 singles point as at 31st July 2015. Over the past few months, Dineshkanthan’s performance in the local circuit has been exceptional and his consistency in the singles format has earned him the top spot.
Trailing behind Dineshkanthan is Sanka Atukorale. A proud product of President’s College Kotte, Sanka is one of the most hardworking players Sri Lanka has ever produced. Earning singles points from almost all of the competitions held during the twelve month period, he has amassed a total of 1100 points to take the #2 seed in the country.
Peterite Nishangan Nadarajah and defending national title holder Heera Ashiq share the #3 seed with 850 points. Heera’s points took a leap when he won the national title last year and later saw him climbing to the third spot after he reached the final of the Colombo Championships a few weeks back. While Ashiq’s points are a compilation of just two premiere tournaments, Nadarajah’s 850 are from tournaments held during the past twelve months.
Anandian Yasitha de Silva is at the 5th spot with 750 points and the younger Ashiq brother, Thanveer Ashiq holds onto 6th place with 600 points. Colombo Championships winner Ashwin Vijayaragavan takes the 7th position solely due to his title win, with 500 points.
The on going Senior Nationals will decide who will take the top seed, with the victor of the Men’s Singles title to be awarded 500 points, as a new calendar year begins for the racket sport at the beginning of September. Sri Lanka’s ATP ranker Sharmal Dissanayake is at 11th place due to his absence in the ranking tournaments held earlier this year.
The Women’s Rankings
With just days left to go for the 100th National Tennis Championships, the top spot in the Women’s national rankings is shared by the defending champion Amritha Muttaiah and eighteen year old Thisuri Molligoda.
The Women’s open title in the 100th national championships will decide as to who will end up being the top seed when the calendar year for tennis concludes at the end of August. The veteran Muthaiah’s ranking was equalled by the young Molligoda after the recently concluded Colombo Championships as Muthaiah was defeated in the final encounter.
Both Molligoda and Muthaiah are tied up at 1050 points and have a clear difference in points with the next in line, Nethmi Waduge who only has 650. Waduge who got her honors in the Colombo championships, secured 500 points to advance up to third place. With her experience and success in the junior circuit this season, there seems a possibility that she could top the table if she wins the national title.
Behind Waduge is fifteen year old Medhira Samarasinghe who has accumulated 550 points at the third seed. Thewni Devaraja and Roshanka Fernando share amongst themselves the fourth spot having secured 450 points each.
Fourteen year old Anika Seneviratne has already made it through to the top tier of the Womens Singles Rankings and takes sixth seed with 250 singles points. The fact that both Medhira Samarasinghe & Anika Seneviratne have made their mark in the Women’s table speaks a lot about the prospective talent in the offing.
It is intriguing to see many of school girls making to the top in the rankings but also disappointing that only a few senior players are making the top seeds.
