Crucial tie with Lebanon today

Lanka's promotion depends on Godamanna

By Lal Gunesekera

DAVIS CUP TENNIS: Sri Lanka's dreams of gaining promotion into Group II of the Davis Cup (Asia/Oceania Zone) looks a lot brighter now after its Doubles combination of Harshana Godamanna and Rajeev Rajapakse helped their country to clinch a 2-1 victory over seventh seeded United Arab Emirates (UAE) yesterday on the hard courts of the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Greenpath. Sri Lanka are seeded No 3. Godamanna, the pride of Sri Lanka, yet remains unbeaten so far. In the vital Doubles against UAE, he was partnered by Rajeev Rajapakse, and they proved that they are a class by themselves.

It took them just one hour to dispose the UAE pair of Mahmoud-Nader Al Baloushi and Omar Bahrouzyan comfortably in straight sets (6-3, 6-1) to set up a clash with seed No 1 Lebanon today. The two Singles matches were worked off in the morning. Renouk Wijemanne, who was flown all the way from the USA at a great expense to the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA), flopped miserably once again as he did against Oman, Malaysia and Vietnam earlier. He went down rather tamely in just over a hour to Hamad Abbas Al Janahi 2-6, 1-6.

Then it was left for Godamanna to pull Sri Lanka out of the rut. This he achieved in just 43 minutes in the second Singles getting rid of UAE's Omar Bahrouzyan in straight sets (6-2, 6-0) to make it 1-all and then combined with Rajapakse to win the vital Doubles to give Sri Lanka a 2-1 win.

Today's clash with Lebanon (who were demoted to Group III this year) is a virtual final. The Lankans have to beat the Lebanese 3-0 to get promoted to Group II, but it all depends on the Oman (seed 8) vs UAE tie.

If the UAE beats Oman, then Sri Lanka are through to Group II, but if Oman does win (they beat Sri Lanka in the Group match on Wednesday 2-1) it all comes down to calculations.

However, the President of the SLTA, Janaka Bogollagama, is keeping his fingers crossed and hopes that Sri Lanka after their surprise failure with Oman last Wednesday, will continue winning after their successes against Malaysia (seed No 6), Vietnam (seed No 2) and then UAE too.

Manager of the team Wasantha Wijesekera is a nervous person and is confident that Sri Lanka will beat Lebanon today to gain promotion to Group II after a lapse of seven years.

Non-Playing captain, Rohan de Silva, too is confident, but declined to name the final team, although Godamanna and Wijemanna are likely to play the two Singles again with Rajapakse and Godamanna figuring in the Doubles.

Lebanon who meet Sri Lanka today, too had a 2-1 win over Oman, with Karim Alayli and Bassam Beidas beating Muhamed Al Nabhani (6-2, 6-2) and Khalid Al Nabhani (6-4, 6-4) respectively in the Singles, while the Nabhani brothers won the Doubles for Oman over Beidas and Patrick Chucri (6-3, 6-4).

Vietnam (seed No 2) beat Singapore (seed No 5) 2-1 Vietnam won both Singles through Quec Khanh Le and Quang Huy Ngo over Abdul-Hakim Bin Jamaludin (6-0, 7-6) and Chee-Jun Leong (6-3, 6-1) respectively, while Singapore's Jamaludin and Leong won the Doubles over Minh Quan Do and Quec Khanh Le (7-5, 6-1). The Saudi Arabia (seed No 4) vs Malaysia (seed No 6) tie was 1-all with Fahad Al Saad of Saudi Arabia beating Selvam Veerasingham in a three setter (6-7, 6-3, 6-1), while Yew-Ming Si of Malaysia beating Tamer Antabi also in a three setter (6-3, 6-7, 6-3) in the two Singles. Today is the final day with play scheduled to start at 9.30 am.