Sri Lanka - a great chance for promotion

Davis Cup (Asia Oceania Zone):

Sanjaya Ariyaratne

TENNIS: Sri Lanka has a great opportunity of getting promotion to group two and winning the Davis Cup (Asia Oceania Zone) this year when the Davis Cup International Tennis Tournament starts at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) courts today in Greenpath, Colombo.

This five-day event will continue till July 22 (Sunday). This eight nation tournament is being hosted by Sri Lanka after a lapse of four years.

Sri Lanka will battle it out against Lebanon, Vietnam, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Singapore and United Arab Emirates (UAE). Sri Lanka was placed third in last year's tournament in Manila, Philippines in which eight countries took part.

The teams that end up in the first two places of this competition will be promoted into group two.

"We have a young and well balanced team with more experienced players. Last year we ended up in the third place but this time we can give a good fight as we are stronger than we were last year", said non playing skipper Rohan de Silva.

He added that the return of Renouk Wijemanne who is both a player and a coach in the United States of America was a tremendous boost for our team who will play singles with Harshana Godamanne.

He also said, that Sri Lanka has a good chance of winning this tournament and being promoted to division two of the Davis Cup. Lebanon is the top ranked team while Vietnam the second best team and Sri Lanka are seeded number three.

The Sri Lanka team comprises Veteran Davis Cup player Rohan de Silva (non playing captain), Harshana Godamanne, Renouk Wijemanne, Rajeev Rajapakse, Sanka Athukorale. Wasantha Wijesekara will be the manager while Switzerland's Dominik Utzinger is the coach.

Sri Lanka's top ranked player Harshana Godamanne who is twenty one years old will be playing for the fifth successive time in Davis Cup will play the Singles events with twenty five year old Renouk Wijemanne who will also make his fifth Davis Cup appearance this year.

Twenty seven year old Rajeev Rajapakse competing in his eighth Davis Cup and partnered by the baby of the team Sanka Athukorale to play in the doubles events.

The former made his debut in Davis Cup in 1998 and clinched the national doubles titles in 2003, 2005 and 2006. The latter who is only 20 years old will make his debut in the David Cup this year.

This time Sri Lanka has a good chance of winning the tournament with the experienced Renouk Wijemanne and Harshana Godamanne playing in the singles.

The former is based in Southern California and also playing for the Asptt Montellier Club in France. He also has been training in Thailand.

Wijemanne emerged the national singles champion in 2001 and also bagged the national doubles titles in 2001 and 2002. He commenced playing Davis Cup in 1999.

The left handed Harshana Godamanne who is based in Thailand has rankings of 1300 in singles and ranking number 1320 in doubles by the ATP. He has been competing in ATP tournaments in Thailand, Dubai and Kuwait and has won several titles.

Tennis fans will get a taste of top class tennis as the cream of tennis players from these eight countries will be seen in action in this prestigious tournament.