Paraguay’s young guns smash Sri Lanka’s Davis Cup hopes
Sharmal Dissanayake presenting the national jersey to debutant Thehan Wijemanne prior to the Davis Cup playoff in Paraguay
Sri Lanka went into the historic Davis Cup World Cup Group II play-off tie against Paraguay full of confidence but were brought down to earth by two 16-year-olds who cruelly exposed their lack of international exposure to send them crashing to 4-0 defeat.
Playing in alien conditions and against a South American nation for the first time in a rejigged Davis Cup format, the Sri Lankans stumbled on the red clay courts at Club Internacional de Tenis in Asuncion in the tie played on March 6 and 7 finding the pace of the Paraguayan players too hot to handle.
“We did not know much about the country. Even though they were ranked below us, tennis is a very big sport there. Their captain (Ramón Delgado) was top 50 in the world and he had beaten Pete Sampras as well. He had played for Paraguay for 17 years,” said Sri Lanka’s Davis Cup captain Sudantha Soysa of his counterpart who achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 52 in April 1999. He reached the ATP final at Bogotá in 1998 and the fourth round of the 1998 French Open, defeating Sampras in the second round.
“They had about 10 players in the squad. The team they played was a young team. They had two juniors, one was number one in South America and the other had got through final of a group I ITF competition. They went with the young team because they were extremely sharp. We were shocked when we saw that we are playing against 16-year-olds,” said Soysa of the opposition they faced.
“The facility was amazing. They had like 39 courts. It was red clay. We had a good practice and the SLTA helped us with everything and the president Mr Iqbal (Bin Isaac) was also there. The court was little bit slower than our courts. The bounce was much higher and movement was a bit rougher. It wasn’t sliding too much. It wasn’t exactly our conditions even though it was a clay court,” he said of the surface.
Sri Lanka went with their experienced campaigners Sharmal Dissanayake and Yasitha de Silva in the opening singles. Adolfo Daniel Vallejo beat Dissanayake 6-4 6-4 while Martin Antonio Vergara Del Puerto beat Yasitha 7-5 6-3 in close encounters.
“First day of course we had very high hopes. Sharmal was up 4-2 in the first set it was a very close battle. But he double faulted at 4-2 and then the switch happened there. That guy won the first set 7-5. Then he stepped it up and it was a case of playing catch up. But the big difference was the junior was 16 years old. He was very good and sharp. He had been playing lot of tournaments and he was extremely quick on his feet. He was one of the fastest players I have seen. It was just that Sharmal was pushed to the edge with this guy’s reaction times but Sharmal did his best,” said Soysa of the first rubber.
Sri Lanka was in the lead again in the second singles but Yasitha’s opponent, another 16-year-old, clawed his way back to give Paraguay a 2-0 lead.
“Yasitha was up 5-3 and 40-30 against a left hander. He was finding difficult to keep up with Yasitha’s pace. But he just kept keeping the balls in play and finally Yasitha crumbled a bit. That guy took the advantage and from there he just walked off,” recalled Soysa.
“At 2-0 down everybody was really down because we had high expectations. Those are close matches even though sometimes the score doesn’t show it. In doubles they played their old team, the ones we had been doing research on. Those guys had been playing doubles together for a long time. We lost that match also,” he said as Juan Borba and Ayed Zatar defeated the Sri Lankan duo of Yasitha de Silva and Dissanayake 6-1 6-4.
Having lost the tie and with nothing to play for, Sri Lanka gave a debut to 16-year-old Thehan Wijemanne.
“That’s why I wanted to give Thehan a chance and the players also wanted him to play. Thehan got a chance to play their number one (Adolfo Daniel Vallejo) who really wanted to play all the matches and get all the experience. He beat Thehan pretty easily 6-1 6-1. The fifth rubber was not played,” said Soysa who lauded the spirit shown by the Sri Lankan players against the odds.
“What’s happening is our boys are not getting that level of tennis. That’s the main issue. Suddenly when they have to play at that level, the demand is too high. That is the problem. If Sharmal was based outside and played the last year, I am sure he would have been able to give it a good match. But because he has not been playing and we did just one month of pool training. Exposure is important especially playing at that level, these guys are very sharp,” said Soysa, a veteran national coach and a former Davis Cup player himself.
“In Sri Lanka you can get away with making unforced errors and hitting a short ball, missing one or two balls at the nets or double faulting. But in Paraguay there was no chance. If you hit a short ball, they laced it. If they hit a double fault, they have definitely lost the game. It was unforgiving,” he said as they go back to the boards to prepare for a relegation tie.
“Now reality has struck. Now we realise that if you are to play group II, you can’t just have part-time programmes. These guys are playing continuously 12 months of the year. Either they are travelling and playing tournaments professionally or junior tournaments. Now we are down to Group III group tournament in Singapore. The team has to get ready for that. Most probably Harshana (Godamanna) will be available. He was in touch with me every day. With Harshana the team becomes so much stronger,” said Soysa.
“After the first two days the players were saying what’s the use of us playing tennis like this. But they are now very determined to come back and do something. They also sacrificed a lot. They also want to win. But it was an eye opener for them,” he said.