Sri Lanka’s national shuttler Niluka Karunaratne and his brother Dinuka Karunaratne had commenced competing at the Yonex Belgian International 2016 which is currently taking place at the indoor stadium at Sportoase Philipssite located in Leuven, Belgium. 225 shuttlers from 27 countries including Sri Lanka have entered to compete at this year’s Yonex Internationals.
The event commenced on 14th September and will go on 17th September with the Qualification Rounds having taken place on Day 1 followed by the first and second main draws on Day 2 which was yesterday (15).
Both, Niluka and his brother and seed partner, Dinuka Karunaratne were scheduled to play the Mens Singles (MS) yesterday. Niluka competed against Rasmus Gemke of Denmark and the scores lined up to 21-6 and 23-21 with Rasmus winning the encounter straight.
Dinuka played against French Seed 8, Thomas Rouxel. Their scores panned out as 21-15, 16-21 and 7-21 giving the eight seed, Thomas Rouxel the win.
Both, Niluka and Dinuka were also scheduled to play the Men’s Doubles against shuttlers Frederik Colberg and Rasmus Fladberg from Denmark, on the same day. The scoring showed the Danish duo having had got the better of the match with a breakdown of the scores 21-13, 18-21 and 25-23. The Karunaratne pair fought in the second set but unfortunately could not hold on to their success in the following set.
The Belgian International draws this year highlighted a group of new pairings in the doubles as well as young participants for the singles encompassing an addition of aspiring European players marking their entrance into one of Europe’s leading internationally rated tournaments.
