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| Sunday, 15 June 2003 |
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Sri Lanka hopes Davis Cup victory will smile on team in Golden Jubilee year by LAL GUNESEKERA Forty-three tennis players who have represented Sri Lanka in the Davis Cup since 1953 (27 of whom are in the country) are to be presented with 14 carat gold lapel pins by the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) to commemorate 50 years of Davis Cup by Sri Lanka during the Asia/Oceania Zone Group IV tournament which is scheduled to be staged at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Greenpath from June 18 to 22. This is being sponsored by Aggreko International, Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (ANCL), Wilson and Trans Asia Hotel. The President of the SLTA, Suresh Subramaniam, speaking at a media briefing held on Wednesday night at Trans Asia Hotel, said that the SLTA decided to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Sri Lanka's participation in the Davis Cup this year on a grand scale where a dinner too, is being held at Trans Asia Hotel on June 16 to present gold lapel pins to past players under the distunguished patronage of Minister of Enterprise Development, Industrial Promotion, Investment Policy and Constitutional Affairs, Professor G. L. Peiris. The tournament will be declared open on June 18 at 8.30 am by L. P. Ernst who was a member of Sri Lanka's first Davis Cup team in 1953. The others in that side were Douglas Scharenguivel, Douglas Fonseka and Rupert Ferdinands as the reserve, while Hildon Sansoni was the non-playing captain and Lionel Fonseka the manager. Sri Lanka who met Holland at the Hague lost 0-5. Subramaniam whilst thanking all the sponsors for their generous contributions towards staging the Davis Cup (Asia/Oceania Zone Group IV) tournament in Sri Lanka, also thanked the ITF and ATF too. He further said that the players have been preparing for this event for the past three months and saw no reason why they should fail this year. He said: "playing on clay is an advantage and hope that Sri Lanka will gain promotion to play in Group III next year". The eight countries participating are: Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Oman, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Brunei and Sri Lanka. Jordan withdrew from the event last month (May), while due to the war situation in Iraq, they have not entered. The draw is to be held on June 17 and the eight countries will be divided into two groups that will play each other on a round-robin basis. The two top teams in each group will then figure in a knock-out format and the first two countries will be promoted to Group III next year. Sri Lanka will be represented by the experienced Rohan de Silva (31), who has played in the Davis Cup since 1989, Rajiv Rajapakse (25), Harshana Godamanne (18) and Franklyn Emmanuel (15) with Isuru Gunasekera as the non-playing captain. The Lankans were also helped in the preparations by two top Indian players - Vijay Kannan (No. 3 in India and six time Davis Cup representative) and Kamal Kannan (No. 11 in India and Junior Davis Cup regular from 1996 to 1999), who were brought down to Colombo and give the Lankans the much needed 'match practice'. The Lankans are being coached by Arul Amalnathan, another Indian, who has been in the country for quite some time. The Tournament Director, Irshard Othman, disclosed that the ATF has named India's Puneet Gupta as the Tournament Referee, Ali Nilli from Iran as Neutral Umpire. The Chief of Umpires will be D. Pathirajah, and there will be six ITF, White Badge Umpires (four from Sri Lanka and one each from India and Kuwait). Matches will be played in two sessions - the two Singles from 9.30 am and the Doubles at 3 pm. The ITF has asked the SLTA to conduct the Davis Cup (Group II) tie between Hong Kong and Lebanon also at the NTC in Greenpath on June 20, 21 and 22. Regional Director of Aggreko International, Patrick O'Driscoll, said that his company was happy to be associated with the Golden Jubilee of Sri Lanka's participation in the Davis Cup and also with the Group IV tournament and hoped that Sri Lanka will gain promotion to Group III next year. |
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