Mahesha to lead Sri Lanka at Federation Cup

by Lal Gunesekera

TENNIS: Mahesha Seneviratne is to lead Sri Lanka's four-member team for the Federation Cup (Asia/Oceania Group III) to be staged in Bangkok, Thailand from January 28 to February 3. Sri Lanka is competing in this event since 2001.

The other three players in the side are Jithmi Jayawickreme, Amritha Muttiah and Nilupul Gunasekera with former David Cup player Niranjan Cassichetty as coach. They are presently in training at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Greenpath.

Sri Lanka have not been playing in the Federation Cup for the past six years due to poor standards of its women's players. However, they decided to compete this year as they have some talented youngsters. In 2001, Sri Lanka (Sobhini de Silva, Shalini de Silva, Mahesha Seneviratne and Vindya Dayananda) beat both Syria and Fiji, but lost to the Philippines and Malaysia.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) Colonel (Rtd) Chrys de Silva, told the Sunday Observer that there will be nine countries competing in Bangkok in two groups (five in one group and balance four in the other) with the winners of each group playing the runner-up of the other and the two winners being promoted to Group II next year (2009).

The nine countries competing in Bangkok will be Sri Lanka, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Philippies, Singapore, Siriya and Turkministan.

ITF Under-14 Event

Sri Lanka will also compete in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Asian Under-14 Championship in Dhaka, Bangladesh which completes on January 27. Players from 16 countries are vying for honour.

The three Sri Lankan boys are Vimuktha de Alwis, Shamal Dissanayake and Madusha Wijesuriya, while the three girls are Dinnshki Ranasinghe, Nilushi Fernando and Shankari Thayakaran with Pahiranan Tharmakularaja as a coach/non playing captain.

The 16 countries represented in Dhaka are Bangladesh, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Butan, Malaysia, Maoao, singapore, Brunei, Maldive Islands, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Mongolia, South Korea and Vietnam.

Based on the performances, players will be selected to represent an ITF Under-14 team at an Asian Championship to be staged in March.