A total of three international wheel chair tennis tournaments sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation is scheduled to take place from the 21st of March to the 31st of March in Sri Lanka. The first tournament known as the Sri Lankan Open is scheduled to take place at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association from the 21st to the 23rd of March. The second tournament which is conducted by the Singhalese Sports Club will be played soon after that from the 25th to the 27th and the final tournament will be played at the Negombo Tennis Club from the 29th to the 31st of March.
The three tournaments
The three tournaments are set to feature some of the top wheelchair tennis players from around the world and ThePapare.com was able to have a quick word with the tournament referee Muffadal Hazari who stated that participants from countries such as Australia, South Africa, India, Korea, Indonesia and Sri Lanka will take part in these three prestigious tournaments. The three tournaments are set to offer total prize money worth of $2000 each, for the participants who are scheduled to compete in the following events at the three tournaments.
· Mens Singles
· Mens Doubles
· Womens Singles
The local contingent will be led by two veterans of the sport namely Upali Rajakaruna and Gamini Dissanayake. Both players have dominated the local wheelchair tennis scene and have represented Sri Lanka at an international level at many tournaments around the world. The coach Jagath Welikala and specialized coach, former Davis Cup player and current chairman of the Sri Lankan Wheelchair Tennis Committee P.S. Kumara told ThePapare.com that they have great faith in the above mentioned twosome and also in the entire local contingent as a whole. P.S. Kumara also went on to state that the locals have been training hard in order to prove their worth against the stiff foreign competition that is set to present itself in the likes of the talented Australian Oh- Chee Keegan and the South African Leon Els who are ranked 32 and 39 in the world respectively. The women’s segment of the tournament is most likely to be dominated by the Australian Sarah Calati who had a world ranking of 37 and Thando Hlatshwayo who has a ranking of 48.
Press Conference
A joint press conference was held on the 20th of March at 6.00 pm to inform the press about the Sri Lankan Open (21st to the 23rd of March) and the tournament that is scheduled to take place at the Negombo Sports Club (29th to the 31st of March). The conference took place at the Global Towers Hotel and was attended by all the players’ as well as the dignitaries from the Sri Lanka Tennis Association and the Media.
The Secretary of the Wheelchair Tennis Committee Colonel Shiran Abeysekera stated the following. ‘The main reason we are having these tournaments is to give our players an opportunity to better themselves and improve their standards by meeting stronger and better opponents. ‘Funding is a issue for us and therefore tournaments such as this enable our players to better their rankings so they can actually make an attempt to make a career out of this amazing sport’ he reiterated.
The president of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association Iqbal Bin Issak was also present at the conference. He welcomed the players with great pride and went on to thank P.S Kumara (Chairman of the Wheelchair Tennis Committee) and Shiran Abeysekera for their wonderful efforts with regards to the sport. He also thanked the sponsors Lanka Tiles and Jetwing Hotels for making the possibility of organizing the tournaments a reality. He also announced the following. ‘We will be celebrating our 100th year of the sport of Tennis in Sri Lanka and we hope to elevate the status of the Sri Lanka Open wheelchair tournament by giving away a total of $10000 in cash money’.
In what followed a few of the foreign players namely Oh Chee Keegan and Sarah Calasti expressed how pleased they were to be here and how excited they were with regards to the upcoming tournaments.
ThePapare.com takes this opportunity to thank the organizers for taking such an effort to promote the sport of wheelchair tennis. We would also like to extend our warm wishes to all the players ahead of the three all-important tournaments which are bound to provide the fans of the sport with some exhilarating action.
