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by Dinesh Weerawansa

The fourth seeded Saudi Arabia humbled top seed Sri Lanka by two games to nil as the host nation's dreams of an promotion to Group III were shattered under lights on the second day of the Davis Cup Asia Ocenia Zone group IV tournament continued at the National Tennis Centre courts, Greenpath in Colombo on Thursday.

Sri Lanka had a pathetic display on Thursday evening as their singles players Franklyn Emmanuel and Harshana Godamanne lost their respective matches in straight sets. Playing in his first singles game of the tournament, 15-year-old Emmanuel lost the opening singles match to Saudi Arabia's No. 2 Al Muqauil Bader Mohamed by two sets to nil. The Royal schoolboy put a brave effort in the first set, which went into a tie breaker. Mohamed had gone the full stretch as Emmanuel took an early 3-1 lead in the tie breaker. But he failed to maintain the same rhythm up to the crucial end as his opponent won the tie breaker 7-4 and the first set 7-6.

Mohamed launched a fresh attack in the second set and had total control in winning in a convincing fashion and with it the first single match 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 which gave Saudi Arabia an early 1-0 lead. In the second singles match played under lights. Harshana Godamanne was never at his brilliant best in losing to Saudi Arabian Omar Sulaiman Al-Thagib, also in almost similar fashion. Al-Thagib was not that comfortable in the keenly contested first set. But he cut loose in the second set and never allowed his Lankan opponent to settle down and dictate terms. Al-Thagib was equally strong in both attack and defence to topple Godamanne 7-5, 6-4 in style. It gave Saudi Arabia's winning 2-0 lead and there was no necessity to play the doubles as a solitary win would not give any chances to Lankans.

After the opening singles ties played on Thursday evening, Myanmar leads Singapore 1-0 and Bangladesh leads Oman, also 1-0 with the second singles to be completed in the two Group 'B' ties. The Group 'A' tie between Vietnam and Brunei did not get under way as scheduled.

The prevailing wet weather conditions affected play for the second successive day. Rain and wet courts had a greater impact on scheduled playing hours than the first day. The morning session of play was completely lost due to rain and unfavourable court conditions and second day's ties got under way only in the evening with the organisers gearing to continue the tie under lights to catch up the lost time.

The three unfinished ties - two in Group 'B' and one in Group 'A' on day one did not have a continuation of the remaining doubles matches as the respective teams had already taken a winning 2-0 lead. Accordingly, in a Group 'A' tie, Saudi Arabia beat Brunei by two matches to nil. The Saudi team need not play the doubles after Al Muqauil defeated Billy Wong Kee Loong, 6-4, -/2 and Al Thagib Omar Salim easily disposed of Ismasufian Ibrahim, 6-1, 6-1. In the first two Group B ties, second seed Singapore beat Bangladesh 2-0 and Oman overcame Myanmar also by the similar margin.

No doubles were played as Singapore and Oman had taken winning leads by day one with two singles wins each.

Today is the third day of the eight-nation tournament. Sri Lanka will play their last of the three Group 'A' first round ties when they take on Brunei - a game which only carries an academic interest after Sri Lanka lost the first two ties to Vietnam 2-0 and Saudi Arabia 2-0. The eight teams taking part are playing under two groups on a semi league basis. Only the top two teams of each group would qualify for the final round, in which they would play a tie each against the top two teams of the other group.

The top two teams after the final round would qualify for Sunday's final. Both finalists will be promoted to play in the Davis Cup Asia Ocenia Zone group 111 from next year, irrespective of the outcome of Sunday's grand final tie. Saudi Arabia and Singapore, which played in Asia Ocenia Zone group 111 last year, were relegated to Group 1V from this year.

Sri Lanka were even playing in Asia Ocenia Zone group 11 four years back but gradually dropped themselves after two successive demotions from Group 11 to 111 and later from group 111 to 1V two years ago. The tournament is hosted by the Sri Lanka Tennis Association on behalf of the International Tennis Federation. SLTA President Suresh Subramaniam and his energetic team has done a good job to secure and host the tournament, which also coincides with Sri Lanka's Golden jubilee in Davis Cup tournament.

The tournament here 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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