Inaugural Sri Lanka Premier Tennis League kicks off

Queen’s Club Tennis Convener Asanga Seneviratne receiving the sponsorship package from JAT Holdings Managing Director Aelian Gunawardena 

– Pic by Kushan Pathiraja

The sport of tennis will open a new leaf when one of the oldest tennis clubs in Sri Lanka spanning 150 years old the Queen’s Club who together with JAT Holdings have come forward as the sponsors have finalised arrangements to conduct the Inaugural Sri Lanka Premier Tennis League (SLTPL) championship.

The event kicked off yesterday and will go on till 3 July at the Queen’s Club tennis courts in Colombo.

Asanga Seneviratne, Tennis Convener of the Queen’s Club said that the tournament is based on the hugely popular and successful International Premier Tennis League adding to organise a new innovation is a challenging task and organising a franchise league of this nature would no doubt be a big boost for tennis.

“So what we are trying is to take the sport to the next level with this SLTPL and it will no doubt give our aspiring young players an opportunity to showcase their talent and also for the numerous fans to witness all the top players, past and present in action.

The specialty of the SLTPL is that the players will consist of past champions; the reigning champions men’s and women’s champions’ and juniors who will be involved.

Aelian Gunawardena, Managing Director of JAT Holdings a top sportsman himself, briefing the media emphasised: “We are proud and privileged to support an event of this nature as much as we have done for cricket, basketball and hockey.”

He added that JAT’s commitment in uplifting the standards of the prestigious Queen’s Club by aiding in the complete overhaul of the tennis courts has made it easy for them to conduct the tournament and it will be a clash of stamina against proficiency which is certain to produce a quality contest.

Apart from JAT Holdings who are the title sponsors four others Sri Lanka Telecom, Cargills, National Savings Bank and Crown Paints will sponsor the four teams that will be contesting. The four teams are SLT Tuskers, Cargills Eagles, NSB Jaguars and Crown Sharks.

Each team will consist of a manager, a captain, a men’s player, two women players, two veteran players and a corporate player. The matches will be played in a round robin format and a tie will consist of five sets which will be men’s and women’s singles, open double a junior boy’s singles and a veteran’s double.

According to the organizers there is going to be a unique feature as there will be a change of the traditional scoring format to single set no-add scoring which they are expecting will speed up the ties and enable fans to experience some exhilaration and nail biting finishes as in the limited over cricket.

The completion of the round robin will see the top two teams to qualify battling it out in the final slotted be played on 3 July.

The Teams:

SLT Sharks: Sujani Bogollagam, Shalini de Silva, Nishangan Nadarajah, Amritha Muttiah, Avindra Perera, Kemalie Herath, Rukaml Cooray, Ganendran Subramaniam, Perumal Ganesh.

NSB Jaguars – Aruna Seneviratne, Jayaendra Wijesekera, Sanka Athukorala, Hasindhi Lokuge, Archana Lokuge, Alana Seneviratne, Udith Wickramasinghe.

Cargills Eagles: Arjun Fernando, Asiri Iddamalgoda, Yasitha Silva, Nethmi Waduge, Innthujan Selvaratnarajah, Prabuddhi Perera, Sanjay Wijemanne.

Crown Sharks – Dinith Pathiraja, Chrishantha Perera, Dineshkanthan Thangarajah, Anika Seneviratne, Vibudha Wijebandara, Janal Manemperi, Sohan Patrick, Chammika de Silva, Jayantha Kelegama.