Sri Lanka to host Davis Cup tourney
Angu Rajendran
“Davis Cup Tennis matches will be underway soon,” says Suresh
Subramaniam - Chairman of the Selections Committee. “A squad has been
chosen and is awaiting approval from the Ministry,” he says. Seven
foreign teams are expected to arrive on June 14 to Sri Lanka to play in
the qualifying Group Three matches that will be held at the SLTA courts
from June 15 to 20, 2011. Sri Lanka which was playing in Group 2 was
unfortunately relegated to Group 3 last year when we lost to Hongkong in
the play-offs after losing to New Zealand in the qualifying round.
“The team looks much stronger this year,” says Subramaniam. “Veteran
Harshana Godamanne, 28 years is in top form. So is 20 year old
Dineshkanthan Thangarajah who has been playing professional tennis in
the last one year and has improved tremendously. Rajiv Peiris, the
oldest player on the team - 30 years is practising more than regularly
and 18 year old Vimuktha De Alwis, last year’s Junior National Champion
is currently playing in Indonesia and is in good form too,” says Suresh
Subramaniam. But the real ace up our sleeve this year is Oshada
Jayamanne - 24 years old who last played for the Davis Cup in 2005 and
left for the University of South Carolina, USA, for his higher studies
and has now come back to play for Sri Lanka after completing his
studies.
“He has been playing Division 2 Inter-University tennis in the US in
the last one year. His record is 26 singles wins and only 3 games lost.
He has improved tremendously and will be a real asset to our team as we
try to qualify for Group 2,” says Subramaniam of this six footer.
The top 2 teams of Group 3 will be pushed up to Group 2. Teams coming
down are Malaysia, Kuwait, Oman, UAE, Lebanon, Myanmar and Vietnam. “The
real competition will come from Malaysia and Kuwait,” says Subramaniam.
“Kuwait, in fact has two professional players. But our boys are ready
for them,” he says. The team practices four hours every day during the
week and at least six hours per day in the week end. |