Kathmandu, May 5, 2019: On the seventh Citizens Bank Open tennis tournament at the National Sports Council court in Tripureshwor on Saturday, Ivanhoe Lissanevitch and Prerana Koirala claimed the singles titles.
In the men’s final, Lissanevitch registered a straight-set victory to rout Pradip Khadka 6-2, 6-1. Lissanevitch’s elder sister Aslesha went down to defending champion Koirala in the final. Koirala raced to 6-3, 6-2 win in the title clash to stamp her authority in the women’s event by winning six titles in a row in one year period starting from last edition’s Citizen’s Open.
She has followed that title with victories in the final of Lalitpur Open, Butwal Open, APF Open and gold in the eighth National Games. The winners of both men’s and women’s singles bagged purse of Rs 50,000 each and the runners up got Rs 25,000 each.
The mixed doubles event saw Lissanevitch siblings Ivanhoe and Aslesha register a comfortable win in the final. The duo overcome pair of Santosh Khatri and Ganga Sharma 6-0, 6-1. The winners and the runners up team bagged a cash prize of Rs 35,000 and Rs 17,500. Krishnaraj Ghale won the men’s singles above 55 years age title defeating Kamal Thapa 6-4, 6-4.
Men’s above 45 year age category saw Chandra Shah beat Raju Shrestha 6-1, 6-3 in the final. Pair of Sudarshan Bista and Raju Chhetri won men’s doubles above 45 year age category event defeating Gopi Bhattarai and Dharam Bahadur Lamichhane’s pair 2-6, 6-1, 10-6.
The event, sponsored by Citizens Bank International and organized by Kathmandu District Lawn Tennis Association, featured competitions in 10 categories.
Altogether 148 players participated in the six-day event which offered total cash purse of Rs 517,500 in prize money. National Sports Council Member Secretary Keshab Kumar Bista, treasurer Sailesh Karmacharya among others distributed prizes to the winners.
