Dumindu Abeywickrama
Sri Lankan badminton player Dumindu Abeywickrama had a hard fought two sets and lost to Indian opponent Rahul Bharadwaj in the men’s Open semi final of the Li Ning International badminton series tournament played at the Dadalla Indoor stadium Galle yesterday.
The 20 year old Abeywickrama was the only Sri Lankan to enter the semi final of this tournament and it was a promising achievement by him as more than 300 shuttlers from 16 countries entered the tournament conducted by Sri Lanka Badminton.
The semi final game between Abeywickrema and Rahul was the toughest semi final yesterday while 12th seed Abeywickrama and Rahul produced a superb display throughout the two sets.
The first set went to Rahul who won 21-19 with a gap of only two points but in second set Abeywickrama was at one stage in the lead but finally the set finished 23-21in favour of Rahul who entered the final and he will meet Canadian Xiaodong Sheng.
Earlier at the morning Abeywickrama made a two straight sets 22-20, 21-15 win over Indian Tharun Mannepalli at the men’s Open quarter final while Viren Nettasinghe lost to Canadian Xiaodong Sheng 5-21,21-15, 21-16.
The Indian pair of Chayanit and Kavya defeated the Sri Lanka pair of Thulith Palliyaguru and Varangana Jayawardena 21-16, 21-14 at the mixed doubles quarter finals while Buwaneka Goonatilleka and Viren Nettasinghe lost to Malaysia’s pair of Sirawit Sothon and Natthapat Trikajee 19-21, 13-21
Today the tournament finals will be played from 1pm onwards. The seven day tournament was successfully conducted by SLB as they conducted two International tournaments within two weeks at the same venue at the Dadalla Indoor stadium Galle.
