Road to Davis Cup – Part 4

This will be SL’s 49th year in Davis Cup (DC) which is the largest international team competition in any sport. SL took part in her first DC, which was set in motion in 1900 by a Harvard player, Dwight F. Davis, in 1953 and she has so far played in 102 ties (meetings with another nations).

The highest point SL has reached in DC so far is Group-II semi-final (5 times), in Asia Oceania Zone, one of the three DC Zones along with American and Euro-African Zones.

According to the DC ladder, each country has to enter Group-I of their respective Zone and then enter the top eight of the 16-nation World Group Play Off segment. There are 16 nations in the top most Group, the World Group, where they battle it out for the DC, the virtual world cup in (men’s) tennis. 137 countries took part in the DC last year.

Harshana Dinuka Godamanna -Right-handed player

Born: Oct. 31, 1985 (22 yrs)

Height: 180 cm

School: Royal College, Colombo

Back-hand: Single-handed

Began Tennis: At age of 3

Racket: ‘Wilson K-Factor Tour’

Coaches: Sylvester Francis, Dominik Utzinger

National Level Achievements: Two national triple crowns (men’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles) in 2005 and ’06. SL men’s No.1 for over 2 years before turning pro.

International: Winning the doubles title (with Bart Goverts) in a Pakistani ATP Futures tourney last Nov. Now holds below 1000 ATP world rank since Arjun Fernando and Suresh Sivagnanam.

In Davis Cup: Playing for 5 yrs since 2002, except for the yr ’04. Lost most of matches in first two yrs. but enjoyed a 3-5, 4-5 and 5-5 singles win-loss record during the last three yrs consecutively.

Comments on 2008 campaign: "Very tough. But for Rajeev Rajapakse, the other two are freshers. I know the pressure felt by a debutant in DC. I’ll do my part in singles and in doubles with Rajeev and hope the other two will do their best. Opponents are much tougher than two last yrs. Hoping for a favourable draw this time where we won’t meet the best team on the very first day like what happened in the last two yrs. It’ll be something good for our two youngsters."