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| Sunday, 25 April 2004 |
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Franklyn Emmanual leads Lanka's challenge in Junior Davis Cup Eighteen countries, including Sri Lanka, will play in the Junior Davis Cup (Asia Oceania Regional Qualifying) BNP Paribas which starts tomorrow (Monday) at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Greenpath and ends of May 1. Four from Colombo will graduate into the World Group competition to be staged in Spain in August. The other qualifying countries ill be from American, European and African continents. Sixteen-year-old Franklyn Emmanual from Royal College leads Sri Lanka's challenge. The reigning national champion and Davis Cup player, Emmanual, will be joined by another 16-year-old player N.S. Nishendran of S. Thomas' who spent four months on the Asian Circuit with a ranking of 269, and Sashivarnan Sabanathna who is yet another 16-year-old Royalist. The non-playing captain is Arjan Perera. Sri Lanka are seeded eighth. The top seed is Australia followed by India, Indonesia, Japan, Uzbekistan, Chinese Taipei and South Korea, while the other countries taking part are China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore and Philippines. The 18 teams will be divided into six groups of three each. A round-robin within each group will be worked off (a tie being made up of two singles and one doubles match). The top six seeds will head each group. The leaders of each group plus the two best from the rest will then figure in a knock-out round with the final scheduled for May 1. The finalists and losing semi-finalists will qualify to play in Spain. CEO of SLTA, Lionel Almeida whilst explaining the format and details of the tournament, thanked Aggreke who are the sponsors of the Sri Lanka team as well as Trans Asia Hotel for being the official hotel. Triphone Miranda, a Vice-President of SLTA too spoke. The Sri Lanka team who won graduation into Group III of the Davis Cup in Jordan recently too were felicitated on Thursday night at the Trans Asia Hotel. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka will compete at the Junior Federation Cup in Thailand from May 3 to 8 and leave the country on May 1. The team's non-playing captain is Shalini de Silva and the three players are Thiyumi Abeysinghe, Thavindra Ekanayake and Hasini Jayatilleke. Six players (three boys and three girls) are also leaving on May 7 to Melbourne, Australia to play in the 'World Junior (Under-14) Championship. The three boys are Dinesh Khanthan, Upasamatha Hewakkotage and Indika Wettasinghe, while the three girls are Jithmi Jayawickreme, Hasini Jayatilleke and Nilupul Gunasekera. Also accompanying the side are Argentinean coach Guillerme Milisenda and Shalini de Silva. (L.G.) |
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