Underrated Sri Lankan pair of Harshana Godamanna and Rajeev Rajapakse staged a stunning performance on Sat. (6) at the SLTA clay courts thrashing strong favourites, New Zealand, in straight sets in the only Doubles rubber of the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Zone Group-II (Round-1) tie between the two countries.

The losing Kiwi pair comprised of none other than their top player Daniel King-Turner, 25, world’s No.227 at present, and Marcus Daniell, 20, who is fresh from his Heineken Open ATP World Tour Doubles title which he won last January in Auckland (partnering Horia Teccau and beating a Brazilian pair Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares in the final) to become New Zealand’s first ATP World Tour titlist in 11 years since legendary James Greenhalgh. Danielle now carries an ATP doubles rank of career high 213 and King-Turner, who carried a career high 182 last Nov., 2008, is ranked 408 in doubles.

The hosts earlier lost the two Singles rubbers held on the opening day of the event on Fri. (5).

After winning the first set tie-breaker 7-5, the Lankan duo cruised in the next two sets, unsettling the Kiwi pair and creating an enormous number of unforced errors from them, to win the match 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-3. Rajapakse has never been a tour player and Godamanna, who retired from the tour a year ago, had a career high doubles world rank of only 846 (in Oct., 2008).

New Zealand now needs to win one out of today’s two Singles to clinch the tie and to meet either Hong Kong – China or Pakistan in Round-2 next July. Pakistan leads 2-1 against Hong Kong in this tie, now being played in Hong Kong concurrently with all four Davis Cup Zonal Group-II ties.

"We expected Sri Lanka to fight hard. We never underestimated them. Rubin (Jose Statham) wasn’t at his best on the first day (Fri. against Godamanna). But he showed a lot of guts and determination to win that match in five sets. Davis Cup is always different from other competitions. Player rankings do not mean much in it.

"But our players are fit and they have been playing all round the year. Now we need to win only one match to win the tie. I hope Daniel (King-Turner) will pick up his game and adjust to situations fast to give his best to the country. Not that he is ranked 227 in the world for nothing," said Marcel Vos, the New Zealand Coach cum Non-Playing Captain on Sat.

Commenting further on Friday’s close encounter between Godamanna and Jose, Vos said the Lankan was a talented player and the game could have gone either way. "He (Godamanna) held himself and fought really hard."

Airing his views on the partisan reaction of the local spectators at the SLTA, he said: "The crowd here is really good. The home crowd is always expected to favour the home team when cheering. They’ve been treating us really well here".

Sri Lanka national team sponsor this year is Coca-cola and the Davis Cup global sponsor is BNP Paribas. India’s (Ms) Sheetal Iyer is the ITF Referee of the Colombo event. Irshard Othamn of the SLTA is the Tournament Director.

Saturday’s Results:

H. Godamanna & R. Rajapakse (SL) beat D. King-Turner & M. Daniell (NZ) 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-3

Today’s Rubbers:

H. Godamanna (SL No.1) vs D. King-Turner (NZ No.1) at 10 a.m.