The year begins with a dispute over selection of Davis Cup 2008 officials and national team selection process

10: SSC get away with seven out of ten main titles of All Island Inter-club Singles Tourney 2007-08

Alex Fairbanks wins two age group titles (U-12 & 14) in Moors SC Centenary Junior Ranking Tennis Tournament

An eight-player pool involves in Davis Cup 1st round trials

30 – Feb 2: After a lapse of six years, a four-member team represents SL in Fed Cup (Asia-Oceania Zone Group-II) in Thailand. SL becomes last out of seven countries

9: Upasama Artha Hewacottege complains Sports and Public Recreation Minister Gamini Lokuge that he has been wrongly put for a second round of trial, against Guyanga Weerasekera, even after he has beaten the latter in the 1st round trials

11: 25th ITF U-18 Int’l Championship begins at SSC

13: Michael Siyaguna beats boys’ singles top seed Chun Min Yam of Hong Kong at SSC

15: Weerasekera goes on to win boys’ singles title beating Britain’s Elliot Barnwell in a thrilling three-setter. He later partnered Hewacottege to win in boys’ doubles too beating Siyaguna & Thangarajah Dineshkanthan in final

17: Cosmopolitan Open, the year’s 1st open ranking tournament, begins at Dehiwala. Dineshkanthan gets a walk over from Hewacottege in men’s singles final. Amritha Muttiah beats Druwinka Moraes in women’s singles

22: Minister Lokuge states an injustice has happened in Davis Cup selection process. Orders an investigation

22-27: SL become 3rd in four-nation Junior Fed Cup in Malaysia

22-29: A three-member SL team becomes last in five-nation Junior Davis Cup in Malaysia

23: ATF Gen. Secretary Suresh Subramaniam announces an Asian Tennis Tour, a regional equivalent to ATP

24: SL boys’ team is placed 4th out of seven countries in World Junior Tennis in Malaysia

28: SLTA Gen. Committee resolves to carry on with Janaka Bogollagama as its president for another year amid a power struggle for the control of SLTA between two camps, led by both Bogollagama and Subramaniam

3: Four-member National Selection Committee under P. S. Kumara is dissolved by Lokuge. Hewacottege is included in the Davis Cup team after he skipped 2nd round trials

4: SLTA ex-co member Maxwell de Silva says a contest is imminent in March 29 SLTA AGM

5: ‘EPSI’ announces sponsorship for 2008 Davis Cup team at Hotel Cinnamon Grand

6: At an informal meeting, Bogollagama decides to step down from SLTA presidency allowing former five-time president Subramaniam to take over after AGM

8: The four-member Davis Cup team begins training in Thailand

12: Lokuge hints at a possibility of appointing an interim administration for SL tennis as he has no faith in fair election at forthcoming AGM

24: With only five days to go, the SLTA AGM is postponed by Minister Lokuge

26: ‘Touchwood’ announces its sponsorship of SL Mini Tennis

28: Former Selection Committee member Aruna Seneviratne tenders an apology to Subramaniam for allegedly distributing an e-mail among the pro-Bogollagama camp on a future work plan for them. Later, it was learnt that Subramaniam has indirectly forced Seneviratne to apologise to him

Harshana Godamanna gets a below 1000 ATP world rank, the 3rd to do so after D. Selvadurai and Arjun Fernando

‘ABC Lubricants’ announces its title sponsorship of three upcountry ranking tennis tourneys: Hill Club, Bandarawela TC and Matale TC

Sharmal Dissanayake represents SL in ITF Asian 14&U Zone-I in Indonesia

April

9: Davis Cup (Asia-Oceania Zone Group-III) begins in Iran. Godamanna, Rajeev Rajapakse, Dinusha Wijesuriya and Hewacottege represent SL under non-playing captain Rohan de Silva and coach Dominik Utzinger. Vasantha Wijesekara is SL Manager

10: Godamanna is beaten by 38-year-old Selvam Veerasingham of Malaysia to worsen SL’s chances of qualifying for Group-II in 2009

13: SL becomes 5th out of eight nations in Davis Cup. Both Pakistan and Malaysia qualify for Group-II while Vietnam and UAE gets relegation to Group-IV

14: Siyaguna and Nilupul Goonasekera win main titles at Hill Club Open

19: Three SL girls play in ITF 14&U World Juniors in China

20: Both Sankha Athukorale and Jithmie Jayawickrema win at Bandarawela

26: …and the key titles go to both Roshenka Fernando and Athukorale at Matale Open

De Silva and Utzinger criticise the SLTA management and the selectors for the poor show in Davis Cup. Bogollagama denies such allegations.

2: Siyaguna beats Weerasekera to win the Trans Asia men’s title. Muttiah beat Moraes in women’s.

5: Australian Open sponsored ATF 14&U tennis begins at SLTA

10: Vimuktha de Alwis beats Deedat Razak of Malaysia in week-1 boys’ final

16: Vishal Passi of India beat de Alwis in week-2 final.

Amid a host of protests and controversies, SLSTA conducts All Island Inter-School Tennis through June, sponsored by ‘3-G Sports’. Holy Family Convent, Royal (U-13), Bishop’s, St. Peter’s (U-15), Musaeus/Holy Family, Royal (U-17), Bishop’s and St. Peter’s win titles.

22: SL top wheelchair tennis player Upali Rajakaruna plays in Korean Open

6: Four-time national champion Jithmie Jayawickrema gets a $1000 ITF grant, SLTA announces

6: Rajakaruna enters doubles final in NEC Albarella Open

8: Roshenka Fernando and Udith Wickremasinghe win at Hilton Residence Tennis Gala

9: After 11 years, Ananda beat Royal College in Inter-School U-19 tennis

9: SL becomes eighth out of 11 countries in Men’s World Group-2 in Invacare World Team Cup wheelchair tennis in Italy after getting a wildcard entry

22: Rajakaruna wins a mostly all Lanka ITF $2000 wheelchair open in Colombo. He beats D. M. Gamini in singles final before partnering Gamini to win in doubles too

23: SSC Open ‘A’ grade tournament begins

24: Sujatha Maduwegoda of Sumana Balika, Ratnapura complains her region’s Mini Tennis coordinator for discouraging her school team before its participation in U-13 final which they eventually lost to Holy Family in a deciding match tie-breaker without the services of few good players

7: ‘Milo’ announces sponsorship for Junior Nationals

30: Lokuge appoints nine-member tennis Interim Committee under Bogollagama

Junior Nationals (Siyaguna and Jayawickrema win main titles), the SL Nationals (Godamanna and Jayawickrema) and Colombo Championship, three of main ranking tourneys are held at SLTA

6-18: ITF U-18 Championship is held at SLTA. Veena Doungkeaw of Thailand and Vaidya Munshaw and Sai Kartik of India win plum events

19: Jayawickrema and Muttiah reach 3rd round in tennis in Commonwealth Junior Athletics in India

20: St. Peter’s and Sumana Balika, Ratnapura win All Island Mini Tennis Inter-School titles while Prince of Wales and Ave Maria Convent, Negombo become runners up

23: Mini Tennis is launched at Kalutara under coordinator Chamila Iddagoda

Former SLTA Vice President and Davis Cup player Arjan Perera dies

1: All Island Inter-Club Singles begins

Women’s International Club organizes junior ranking tourney

Siyaguna leaves U-18 tennis as the highest ranked ITF junior of SL

Tennis Centre opens in Negombo

6: Mercantile Tennis begins

6-8: Cruyff Foundation conducts Asian wheelchair tennis camp in Colombo

20: Kalutara Lawn Tennis Club, one of the oldest outstation tennis clubs in SL, celebrates its 70th anniversary.