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| Tuesday, 27 April 2004 |
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Lankans start off in style by Dinesh Weerawansa Hosts Sri Lanka launched their Junior Davis Cup Asia Ocenia zonal tournament in style when they trounced Singapore by three matches to nil in their opening tie worked off at the National Tennis Centre courts, Greenpath yesterday. Playing in their opening Group 111 first round match, seventh seeded Sri Lanka did it in style to take an early lead in the 17-nation tournament. Thomian schoolboy N.S. Nishendiren gave a flying start to Lankan campaign with a smashing straight sets win over Singaporean Chen Jie Yan. Nishendiren took just 48 minutes to accomplish his task which gave the hosts a 1-0 lead. In the second singles match, Sri Lanka national champion and senior Davis Cup player Franklyn Emmanuel registered another straight sets win. The experienced Royal College teenager took 65 minutes to overcome Singapore's junior No.1 Kenneth Ng without conceding a game 6-0, 6-0.Having won both the singles game, there was less pressure on Sri Lanka in the doubles match, which too the hosts won to make it a whitewash. Emmanuel and Nishendiren beat NG and Ahmed Kamil Bazil 6-0, 6-0 in only 46 minutes. Despite winning his match without conceding a single point to 15-year-old Ng, Emmanuel had to spend a longer duration than his team mate. Emmanuel's difficulties in the first set, which lasted 45 minutes, were of his own making, committing forward errors with a frequency that belied his experience at senior level. The Lankan No. 1 was forced to deuce five times before winning the first game while the second set was won after coming back four times from deuce. "Nishendiren was in good form and was outstanding. But Franklyn could have played better than he did, though he did not drop a game. He was inconsistent in the first set and took an inordinately long time to win it," Sri Lanka's non-playing captain Arjan Perera said. He added that this problem was due to playing against a weaker opponent. "Franklyn knew that he could not lose and tended to hang back when he could have finished the points. But he was sharper in the second set. But it is better he had a off day against Singapore before we play stronger opponents," Perera added. Drawn in Group 111, Sri Lanka will play their second round-robin group stage tie against unseeded Pakistan today before their relatively tight tie against fifth seeded Uzbekistan will be worked off tomorrow. "The tie against Uzbekistan will be our biggest challenge. We got off to a good start and I hope we should be able to capitalise on that. The boys should be on good shape by Wednesday," a determined Perera said. Top seed Australia, bottom seeded India and fourth seed Japan drew byes in yesterday's first round. But third seeded Indonesia were tied one-all with unseeded Malaysia. Sixth seed Taiwan beat Thailand 3-0 while Myammar shocked Syria 2-1. The junior Davis Cup by PNB Paribas is hosted by the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) on behalf of the International Tennis Federation. Agrekko is the local sponsor of the Sri Lanka team. |
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