The second of four wheel chair tennis tournaments scheduled to take place in the island came to a close on the 22nd of March at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association.
The tournament more commonly referred to as the Sri Lanka Open, commenced on the 20th of March and featured action in three events. Namely the Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles and Women’s singles.
Men’s Singles
The top seeded Korean Ha Gel Lee who is ranked 28th in the world showed his class as he overcame all the competition his way in order to secure top honors at Sri Lankas premier wheel chair tennis tournament. The eventual winner cruised through the first few rounds and reached the final without conceding a single set. The final was an all Korean one that featured the top seed and his counter part Sang Ho Oh who crushed the Lankan hopes by defeating Gamini Dissanayake 6-2 6-7(5) 12-10 in the semi finals. The finals proved to be a test for Ha Gel Lee but he came through in three sets winning a gruelling match 6-3 4-6 10-3.
Men’s Doubles
Ha Gel Lee went on to complete a prestigious ‘double’ as he teamed up with Sang Ho Oh to claim the doubles title. The top seeded Korean pairing proved to be ruthless as they did not drop a single set en route to the final. Their opponents in the final were a Lankan duo comprising K.A. Dharmakirthi and Rals Ranaweera. The local lads created a huge upset when they defeated the bottom seed Australian pairing of Henry De Cure and Jerry Markoja however the Koreans proved to be too strong as they were ousted 6-0 6-2 in the finals.
Women’s Singles
The women’s singles witnessed a series of huge upsets as the unseeded Canadian Yuka Chokyu went on to win the title. In her first match she defeated the bottom seeded Indian Madhu Bagri 6-0 6-1 and in the finals posted a similar score line in order to beat the top seeded Australian Luba Josevski 6-1 6-0.
The SSC open which is the third of the four tournaments is scheduled to commence on the 24th of March.
