Sharmal and Fairbanks carry Lanka to pre-qualifying tourney

Richard DWIGHT

It was most disappointing to witness a sparse, motley few at yesterday’s final stages, at the SLTA of the 8 nation Asia/Oceanic pre-qualifying round, in the Junior Davis Cup and the World Junior Tennis competition.

The week long series of matches amongst competing countries had reached its climax and it was disheartening to see that there was little or no support. It’s truly a sad reflection on the following for tennis especially by the youngsters here in this country.

The only bright spot from the Sri Lankan point of view was the splendid performance by our team in the World Junior Tennis where we gained eligibility in the pre-qualifying round in China by coming first, with Malaysia coming second.

The Sri Lanka team was made up of Sharmal Dissanayake, Alexander Fairbanks and Nishangan Nadarajah with Chris Pillai as captain.

Right through the series Sharmal has been in tremendous form, with hardly dropping a match. Equally supportive Fairbanks winning his singles as well and combining effectively in the doubles.

Both of them Sharmal and Fairbanks are potential players for the future and, they with ease edged out Malaysia 3-0 and Kazakhstan/Sriya into third place. But all three of them will travel for the pre-qualifying round to China.

In the Junior Davis Cup in the preliminary rounds, Sri Lanka headed by Vimuktha de Alwis did well enough but on the final day against Syria, Vimuktha was the only one who won his singles whilst the other singles and doubles were lost.

The sides that went through for the Junior Davis Cup pre-qualifying round in China are - Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Syria - with Sri Lanka left out.