The Sri Lankan tennis players who participated in the 2016 South Asian Games after a long silence of 21 years, bagged three bronze medals, all of which came from the doubles events.
Sri Lanka had to fight their way through against heavyweights India and Pakistan, who are far ahead in the ITF global ranking, and yet succeeded in winning medals.
The Sri Lankan top duo, Harshana Godamanne and Amritha Muttiah did not get the opportunity of moving forward to the finals in the mixed doubles segment as they lost out and were placed in the third place play off. The Lankan duo won the third place draw thus giving them the bronze in the Mixed Doubles.
Click here: National Tennis team – South Asian Games 2016
The Men’s semifinals saw two Sri Lankan pairs up against two Indian pairs. The Dineshkanthan-Yasith De Silva pair lost out to R. Ramanathan and V. Prasath 6-3, 6-1 depriving them of a spot in the final. On the other side of the draw it was Harshana Godamanne and Shamal Dissanayaka who also lost in similar fashion to D. Sharan and S. Singh with scores reading 6-3, 6-1. Since both Sri Lankan teams ended up in the third place play-off, they were both declared joint bronze medal winners.
It was disappointment for the Lankan doubles pairs but it was progress made by the Lankans having made their comeback to the South Asian Games circuit after two decades.
Meanwhile Shamal Dissanayaka will play his next game in the Men’s singles and all hopes will be on him to get Sri Lanka another medal.
SAG Day 4: Eashan, Jeevan, Nimali, Rumeshika and Manjula bathe Sri Lanka in Gold
