The 7th Sri Lanka Open International Wheelchair Tennis tournament hosted by the Sri Lanka Tennis Association came to a close on the 23rd of March. The tournament which featured top quality players from countries such as Australia, Korea, South Africa, India, Indonesia and the home country Sri Lanka provided the ideal setting for the sportsmen and sportswomen of these countries to portray their talent and skill.
Sang- Ho Oh steals the show
Sang-Ho Oh from Korea completed a double as he played at a very high standard in order to secure both the men’s singles and doubles titles.
The Korean number one who was seeded 6th in the tournament defeated his compatriot Sung Bon Han in the finals with a score line reading 6/1 6/1. His toughest match came in the second round when he faced off against the Sri Lankan number one Gamini Dissanayake who in his first round was involved in what all those present at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association considered to be the match of the tournament.
Dissanayake took on the former number 10 in the world Ha Gel Lee and much to the excitement of the home fans he defeated the Korean in a match that lasted for four hours with a score of 7/6 3/6 6/4. Dissanayake took on the eventual winner of the tournament in the second round and was leading 5-2 in the first set with two set points however he was unable to convert owing to what could have possibly been fatigue from his grueling first round match which was played on the same day. Nevertheless, he braved through to win the set 7/5 and he was able to secure the win with yet another score line of 7-5 in the second set. From that point onwards it was smooth sailing for the Korean as he dispatched opponent after opponent with ease in order to win the coveted singles title.
The Koreans completed their domination of the tournament when Sang Ho Oh teamed up with Ha Gel Lee to defeat the Lankan pairing of Gamini Dissanayake and Upali Rajakaruna with a score of 3/6 6/1 10/5. Rajakaruna together with Dissanayake proved to be stiff competition for the Koreans as the match went into a three setter which eventually witnessed the experienced Koreans emerging as the champions.
The women’s singles was dominated by the Australian player Sarah Calati who proved to be too fit and too strong for her opponents. She secured the title with a relatively simple 6/0 6/2 victory over the South African player Hlatswayo Thondalwethu.
ThePapare.com spoke to the tournament referee and ITF level 11(white badge) qualified umpire Muffadal Hazari who stated the following with regards to the tournament. ‘Year by year the standards of the players are increasing and it is wonderful to see that our Sri Lankan players can hold their own against some of the best in the world’. ‘The main issue for our players is that they do not have the necessary funding which is sad because a lot of the Sri Lankans have the potential to perform very well on the international circuit and I sincerely hope greater efforts will be taken by those concerned in order to push wheel chair tennis up the ladder’ he added.
The second tournament of the series is scheduled to take place from the 25th to the 27th of March at the Singhalese Sports Club courts.
