Davis Cup Zone III Tennis from Monday
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Sri Lanka is eyeing a berth in the final among nine countries in the battle - File pic
The Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Asia/Oceania Zone Group III will get underway from tomorrow at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) Courts in Greenpath, Colombo. The tournament, featuring nine countries, will end next Saturday, July 22.
After their unexpected defeat in the Zone Group II last year at the hands of Indonesia in Jakarta, Sri Lanka has been relegated to the Zone Group III this year. Sri Lanka has been a unit that has been in the Zone Group II since 2010, before dropping out from the group.
Hosts Sri Lanka will be among the nine countries in contention for a promotion this year. Other countries competing are Turkmenistan, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Syria and Pacific Oceania. The nine countries will contest under two groups with the top two sides guaranteed a slot in the semi-finals. The two finalists will earn a promotion to the Zone Group II next year.
According to SLTA officials, some of the participating countries have send out their players to Sri Lanka well ahead of the competition to acclimatise to the conditions. Some of these players were part of a few international tournaments hosted by Sri Lanka during the past few weeks.
Sri Lanka will be led by its star player, Harshana Godamanne, who performed impressively at the ITF Men’s Singles and Doubles competitions held during June and July. Others representing Sri Lanka are Sharmal Dissanayake, Yasitha de Silva and Nishangan Nadaraja.
The Sri Lankans are training under Renouk Wijemanna and Dominik Itzinger. Rohan de Silva will be the non-playing captain of the Sri Lanka team.
“The SLTA has been working hard to make this event a successful one. We have spent and allocated a lot of finance and resources not only on the structural repairing of the SLTA courts for the this event, but also and most importantly on the preparation of our players for this competition. We also consider this as a very good opportunity for our younger players to witness top players from nine countries in the region, and with that intention entrance throughout the six days of the competition will be totally free,” Iqbal Bin Issack, the SLTA President elaborated.
Nitin Kannamwar from India has been appointed as the referee for the event while ITF Silver Badge Referee, Dharaka Ellawala from Sri Lanka will be the assistant referee. Leena Nageshkar from India is the Chief of Umpires while Sri Lankan Anjana de Silva will be her deputy. Other officials on duty are Sagar Kashyap from India, Kondo Yasuyuki from Japan, Razmee Rawi from Malaysia, Teeranan Tanazang from Thailand, Dinusha Wijesuriya and Prasad Jayalatharachchi from Sri Lanka.
Dinith Pathiraja acts as the Tournament Director, handling a massive part of the tournament that features the participation of nine countries and officials from four countries. Zareena Saleem, Shiran Wijesinghe, Nirmala de Silva, Bernie Rupasinghe and S. Indrakuamr have been appointed as the Tournament Staff Committee while Jagath Welikala has been appointed as the Liaison Officer.