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| Saturday, 24 April 2004 |
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Agrekko 'serves' junior tennis by Dinesh Weerawansa Agrekko has come forward as the local team sponsor as experienced 16-year-old Royalist, Franklyn Emmanuel leads Sri Lanka's challenge at the forthcoming 2004 Junior Davis Cup tournament to be worked off in Colombo. He played a key role in Sri Lanka senior Davis Cup team's promotion to the Group III in Jordan two weeks ago, winning three of his four singles matches. The 18-nation line-up for next week Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas features all of the leading countries from Asia and Oceania, including world powers, Australia and India, the top and bottom seeds respectively. But Sri Lanka's non-playing captain, Arjan Perera, has limited the horizon of his three-member team to either Uzbekistan or Taiwan, seeded fifth and sixth respectively for the April 26 - May 1 event to be worked off at the National Tennis Centre courts in Colombo. Sri Lanka, seeded eighth, is expected to be in the group headed by either Uzbekistan or Taiwan. "It is going to be tough. We would be up against the best junior from 17 countries including Australia, India and Indonesia who are top three. But we are determined to do well and I hope our team would live up to expectations," Perera said. Perera added that it would be advantageous for them to have an experienced campaigner like Emmanuel who could inspire the other two members. "We're taking things step by step so as to simplify our task and reduce the pressure. We're directing all our thoughts to the match against Chinese Taipei or Uzbekistan. Our first aim is to qualify for the quarterfinal _ and to make certain of that we have to win over the leaders of our group. So, for the time being we are not going to add pressure by worrying about Australia, India or any other major opponent,'' said Perera. "The pressure of playing before home crowds is bad enough," he added. Of the three players that form the Sri Lanka junior Davis Cup team, two are from Royal College. Besides Emmanuel, the other player from the Reid Avenue school in the team is 16-year-old Shashivarnan Sabanathan, who is ranked No.3 in Sri Lanka junior ratings. He is reputed to have the best serve among the juniors and is considered a worthy investment for the future. In fact it would be a Royal-Thomian combination that would form the Sri Lanka junior team as the third member is 16-year-old Thomian N.S. Nishendiran, who is considered second only to Emmanuel at junior rankings. The Lankan non-playing captain Perera has stressed on his subjects that they should take maximum advantage of an extremely favourable draw and home conditions. '' Uzbekistan's leading player is 223 in the world junior rankings and Chinese Taipei's best is ranked 296th. This provides a far better prospect than having to meet the higher ranked players from Australia or India,'' said Perera. Australia's Steven Goh and Todd Ley are placed 99 and 107 in the world junior rankings while second seed India's three players, Roy Rupesh, Sanam Singh and Nedunchezian Jeevan are ranked 66, 135 and 137 respectively. "Nishendiren's ranking of 269 was earned by playing four months in the Asian circuit and is a respectable comparison to ranking of the best players from Uzbekistan or Chinese Taipei. Emmanuel's ranking is the high 600s only because he was engaged in national duty and so didn't play in the junior circuit. But he remains our leading player and we're hoping he can provide a winning star the others can build on," said Perera. |
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