Tennis: Sri Lanka meet Indonesia in Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Group II match

Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Asia/Oceania Zone Group II playoff match against Indonesia gets underway in Colombo on April 7 and 8 at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) courts at Greenpath.  

Sri Lanka was in Group III of the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas last year but was promoted to Group II with an unbeaten record after the group III event which was held in Colombo in June 2017.

The losing side in this tie will be demoted to zone Group-III in 2019. 

Sri Lanka lost the Group-II first-round tie against Thailand after a very close match 3-2 this February. 

Out of the eight nations taking part in Group II this year, one from Sri Lanka vs Indonesia tie and one from Iran vs Chinese Taipei tie, will be relegated while the winners will stay in Group-II for another year.

The host country, Sri Lanka, with its star player, Harshana Godmanna who has a current world ranking of 1100 in the singles and 1441 in the doubles back for this tie also comprises of promising youngster Sharmal Dissanayakewho has a current world ranking of 1446 in the singles with 1465 in the doubles, Yasitha de Silva who is ranked 1681 in the singles, Alex Fairbanks and Avindra Perera. 

They have been training under the watchful eye of the coaches Dominic Utzinger and assisted by Sudantha Soyza. 

Rohan de Silva is the non-playing Captain of the Sri Lanka team while Udith Wickremasinghe is the manager.

Meanwhile the Indonesia team consists of Christopher Rungkat, who has a current singles ranking of 814 and a doubles ranking 115, David Agung Susanto, who has a current singles ranking of 1366, Ignatius Anthony Susanto, Justin Barki and Muhammad Dhaifullah with Febi Widhiyanto who is the non-playing captain of the team with Deddy Prasetyo as the Team Manager.                         

The Sri Lanka Tennis Association has pulled out all the stops to make this event a success, led by the President, Iqbal Bin Issack. 

“The SLTA has worked hard to make this event a success. We have spent a lot of time and effort and money on the preparation and practice for the players. They went overseas also and trained for this tie. We are confident that our players with Harshana leading from the front with his experience, will give a good account of themselves and will be successful.’ said the SLTA President.

“I would like to invite everyone to come and witness the matches specially since the entrance for the event is free” he said.

The Referee for the event is Emilliano Zanano, an ITF Silver Badge Referee from Georgia,while Sri Lankan ITF White Badge umpires Dharaka Ellawala and Prasad Jayalatharachchi are the Chair Umpires for the event. 

Alexander Bagdasarov from Uzbekistan is the Chief of Umpires with Anjana de Silva in charge of the ball kids.

The tournament is a massive organisational task which is being handled by Dinith Pathiraja as the tournament director with the CEO of the SLTA, Ronnie Guneratne, Zarina Saleem, Shiran Wijesinghe, Nirmala de Silva, Bernie Rupasinghe, S. Indrakumar, Kevin Assauw and Shenal Perera in the tournament staff helping him.

With the regional professional tennis stars as well the experienced and the young, and upcoming stars of the future of Sri Lanka in action it is going to be a feast of tennis at the SLTA courts this week.