Sri Lanka accomplished its mission of fighting back into Group II of the Asia/Oceanic Davis Cup tournament when they defeated Malaysia 2-1 in a deciding Group III match at the SLTA courts yesterday.\
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| Sri Lanka’s winning duo Oshada Wijemanne (Left) and Harshana Godamanne who sealed the sides’ promotion to Group II in action yesterday.
- Pictures by Ranjith Perera. |
Though the doubles match was due to be played later in the day the 2-0 lead was sufficient for Sri Lanka’s promotion to Group II. The outcome of this match, whether win or lose, was not going to be a hindrance to the promotion.
The fourth day’s proceedings began with Sri Lanka, who finished on top in their group, taking on Malaysia who finished second to Lebanon in their group.
Malaysia too was a strong contender in the fight for promotion to the Group II but the two singles players Oshada Wijemanne and Harshana Godamanne made it look easy for Lanka.
Oshada who was the first to take the court came back with a vengeance. He put back his earlier defeat in the match against Kuwait’s Mohammed Ghareeb on the previous day and played a well disciplined game.
He gave his Malaysian opponent Si Yew Ming some anxious moments winning the first set 6-4.The second set saw Oshada pulled out all the tricks. Though the set took a bit longer Oshada did not let down his fans as he cruised through to a 7-5 victory to give the Lankans a 1-0 lead.
At the other end Harshana was in a class of his own as he proved to be too good for his opponent Ariez Elyaas. In the first set Harshana took an early 3-0 lead and had his opponent in tatters in between before pulling off a comfortable 6-1 win. The second set saw Ariez putting in some resistance but Harshana’s serve and return dashes was too much for him to handle. Harshana won the set at 6-2.
The Sri Lanka’ s double combination of the experience Rajeev Rajapakse and Thangarajah Dineshkanthan was beaten by the Malaysian pair of Si Yen Ming and Ahmad Deedat 4-6 and 2-6.
So Sri Lanka is back in the Group II after their demotion where they were unfortunate to lose to New Zealand 3-2 in the deciding encounter of the Group II played last year.
“It’s great and we have accomplished our mission said non playing captain Asiri Iddamalgoda to the Sunday Times after Harshana’s win. This was what we were aiming at and I am happy our boys have been able to fulfill it.”
Sri Lanka finished the round robin unbeaten with wins against Vietnam (3-0), Myanmar (3-0) and Kuwait (2-1) to finish on top with Kuwait talking the second spot.
Meanwhile Lebanon, the strongest side of the ongoing Asia/Oceanic Group III tournament, is tipped to come out as the number one team as they are fielding the strongest team in this tournament.
In the morning session Lebanon crushed Vietnam to sign off with an unbeaten record. In the round robin matches Lebanon beat Oman (3-0), UAE (2-1) and Malaysia (3-0).
Lebanon along with Sri Lanka will be the two teams to be promoted to Group II, the third, fourth, fifth and sixth teams will remain in Group III while the seventh and eighth teams will be demoted to Group IV.
The curtains of the Asia/Oceanic Davis Cup Group III tournament will come down today with the crucial clash between Sri Lanka and Lebanon who will battle it out to decide who will be the number side of the tournament. |
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