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BNP Paribas to emulate seniors in Junior Davis Cup
Sri Lanka's Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas tennis team will hope to emulate their seniors when they compete in the Asia/Oceania Regional Qualifying event of the 2004 Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas. The Tournament is locally sponsored by Aggreko.

The opening will be on the 26th of April, where the Australian High Commissioner, David Bins will be the Chief Guest. The Tournament, which will consist of 18 countries including the hosts Sri Lanka, will be from April 27-May 1. The eighteen teams will compete for 4 places in this year's World Cup competition.

The top 4 nations of the Colombo event will join the qualifying countries from the American, European and African continents to decide the world champion in the finals to be held in Spain, probably in July. The reason for the intensity that could be experienced in this competition could be put down to the fact that places in the World Group final in Spain are at stake.

Sri Lanka has been seeded eighth with Australia as the top seed. The other out of the first seven seeds in order are India, Indonesia, Japan, Uzbekistan, Chinese-Taipei and Korea. The other countries are China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, Syria, Thailand and the Philippines.

According to the Tournament rules, the 18 teams will be divided in to 6 groups, each consisting of three teams. Lionel Almeida, Tournament Director explaining the rules of the Tournament said that the Tournament will be played off on a round robin basis within each group, a tie made up of two singles and a doubles match. The top six seeds will head each of the six groups. Sri Lanka as eighth seed is expected to be in the group headed by either sixth seed Chinese-Taipei or fifth seed Uzbekistan. The leaders of each group plus the two best from the rest will then figure in a knockout round climaxing with the final on May1. The finalists and the losing semi finalists will qualify to compete in the World Group final in Spain.

Arjan Perera, non- playing captain and vice President of the SLTA, International Sales Manager at NDB Stockbrokers, said that playing the sixth or seventh seed is better than playing the top seeds. "Given home conditions it is easier to overcome Taipei or Uzbekistan. We will be up against the best juniors of 17 countries, including Australia, India and Indonesia, all tennis giants." said Perera.

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