Sri Lanka gears up for Davis Cup clashes

By Lal Gunasekera

TENNIS: Except for two top players in Renouk Wijemanne and Harshana Godamanne who are "training" in the USA and Thailand respectively, six others who form the pool are training at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Greenpath for the Davis Cup (Asia/Oceania Zone Group III) to be worked off at the NTC's hard courts from July 16 to 22.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA), Lionel Almeida, told the Sunday Observer that both Wijemanne and Godamanne have made themselves available and are in training. Six others (Rajiv Rajapakse, Michael Siyagune, Sanka Athukorale, Sasith Wickremesinghe, Udith Wickremasingha and Dinusha Wijesuriya) are presently in training and undergoing "trials".

Almeida further said that they (the SLTA) have not yet decided on a coach, but will continue with Wasantha Wijesekera (a Vice-President of SLTA) as manager and also have brought in veteran player Rohan de Silva as the non-playing captain.

However, there are indications that Dominic Uzringer who is attached to an Academy in Thailand will once again be signed on to coach the Sri Lanka side before the Davis Cup. There are eight countries "fighting it out" for two berths to play in the Group II of the Davis Cup next year (2008).

They are Sri Lanka, Malayasia, Singapore, Vietnam, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Junior Federation Cup is to be staged in Bangladesh from February 26 to March 3, the World Junior Championships in New Delhi, India in April and Junior Davis Cup also in April in Thailand. Meanwhile, the 24th International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior (Under-18) International Championships is scheduled to be staged at the Singhalese Sports Club Courts, Maitland Place from February 19 to 25.

According to Almeida, there will be players from 15 countries represented in Colombo.

They are from USA, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Singapore, Pakistan, Japan, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Great Britain, Belarus and Sri Lanka.

The main draw for the boy's will comprise 24 players, but 32 will face qualification, while the girl's too will have 24 players in the main draw with nine to qualify. Altogether, there will be 56 boys and 33 girls in action.