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| Monday, 16 June 2003 |
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Lankans hope to move a step further by Dinesh Weerawansa The two finalists of the Davis Cup Asia Ocenia Zone Group IV tournament, to be worked off at the National Tennis Centre courts, Colombo from today will be promoted to play in the Asia Ocenia Zone Group III from next year. Singapore and Saudi Arabia are the most fancied teams to earn the two slots but hosts Sri Lanka are determined to make use of home advantage to earn a place in the final. Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia are two teams which have been making a lot of preparations to win these two slots. Beside the three teams, the other five - Oman, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Brunei too are capable of making their presence felt. The draw for the Colombo Davis Cup tie, will see the eight teams clashing for honours under a semi league basis. Each team will play three ties each in their respective groups. The top two teams in each group will qualify for the final round of the Davis Cup Asia Ocenia Zone group IV. The four teams will then play on a knockout basis, from the semi-finals. The winners of the two semi-finals will be promoted to play in the Davis Cup Asia Ocenia Zone group III from next year, irrespective of the outcome of next Sunday's final. Saudi Arabia were demoted to Group IV last year. Similarly, Sri Lanka too lost their rating they had several years back. Following a series of dismal performances, Sri Lanka's position in the Davis Cup Asia Ocenia Zone group II went further down. They were demoted to group III and later went further down to Group IV. But the energetic Sri Lanka Tennis Association President Suresh Subramaniam said they will be looking forward to a memorable performance this year when Sri Lanka celebrates its Golden jubilee in the Davis Cup. He said the team has been training for six months and expected the young lads to take Sri Lanka for the position they enjoyed before. The tournament is sponsored by Aggrekko and the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited with the 'Daily News' and 'Sunday Observer' being the official media sponsors. The balls for this Tie will be sponsored by 'Wilson'. |
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