September 25, 2014, 10:13 pm

The victorious St. Peter’s College tennis team which won the Gold Medal at the National Schools Tennis Championship yesterday at the SLTA, Colombo. Also in the picture are their Tennis Master-in-charge Bernard Jesuthasan and coach Dinith Pathiraja. St. Peter’s completed a grand double this year by winning main titles at both the All Island Inter Schools and the National Schools Tennis Championships.

 
St. Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya tennis team completed a rare ‘double’ when they won the National Schools Tennis Championship’s Gold Medal at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA), Colombo on Wednesday, Sept. 25. They had won the overall title of the All Island Inter-school Tennis, for the 8th time in 10 years, only last July thus completed a rare double in the national school circuit on Wednesday. The school has made the same achievement in year 2007 too.

 Before the National Schools Championships, the Peterites were considered only the third favourites, behind Royal College and defending champions S. Thomas’, Mount Lavinia.

In the first round of the tournament, they beat S. Thomas’ Prep School, Colpetty and then beat St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa. In the semi-finals, they beat fancied Royal 2-0 to meet S. Thomas’, who had beaten Ananda in the other semis.

In the finals, Nishangan Nadaraja got off to a fine start beating Anarga Peiris. Then the Peterite pair of Davishka Ranasinghe and Sanjeev Mohanakumar won a pulsating Doubles against Venuka Hulangamuwa and Avindra Perera 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 to win the final 2-0 to clinch the title. St. Peter’s also completed a remarkable record by winning the Gold Medal without losing a single match.

 Last month Peterite rep, Nadaraja, became the Under-18 (junior) National champion and then partnered team-mate Chehan Fernando to win the Under-18 National Doubles as well.

Their team comprised Senel Rohana (Capt.), Nishangan Nadaraja, Chehan Fernando, Davishka Ranasinghe, Sanjeev Mohanakumar and Nabeel Sabri.

Encouraged by the Rector Fr. Trevor Martin, Sports Coordinator Fr. Shyam Dasanayaka and the Sports Secretary Troy Bartlett, the Peterite tennis continues to dominate under their Master-in-charge, Bernard Jesuthasan, and their renowned coach Dinith Pathiraja, who has been there with St. Peter’s for 17 years.