Sri Lanka finishes unbeaten after thumping Lebanon

By T.B. Rahaman

Sri Lanka tennis reached their pinnacle when they finished on top with an unbeaten record and assured themselves of being promoted to group II next year, when they trounced Lebanon 3-nil in a promotion group match at the SLTA hard courts at Sir Marcus Fernando Mawatha on Sunday, 19 June.

Lebanon had brought a strong team and was the other team to secure a promotion to Group II next year along with Sri Lanka before the final match between the two teams began in the morning.

However, the attitude by Lebanon not to play at their best performance left much to be desired as they conceded walk-overs in the first single and the doubles matches. Their excuse is most likely that the hot and humid conditions in Colombo had sapped their energy and they just could not play hard coming into the fifth day of the tournament.

Lebanon did this in almost all their league games. They would take a 2/nil lead after winning the first two singles and concede a walk-over in the doubles match after playing a few games.

Oshada Wijemanne once again took the court for the first single and when he was leading on 5/2 his opponent Giovani Samaha took time out for medical reasons and conceded a walk-over.

Harshana Godamanna took on Karim Alayli in the second single but the Lebanese who was expecting to cruise to victory learnt his lesson by taking his opponent lightly. Godamanna played at his best form and with accurate placements cruised to victory in straight sets, 6/3, 6/1.

Rajiv Rajapakse and Oshana Wijemanne took the court for the doubles match and the Lebanese pair of Chucri Patrick and Giovani Samaha meekly surrendered after losing the first game. This left Sri Lanka winners overall and remained unbeaten in the tournament.

The two teams likely to face relegation are Myanmar and United Arab Emirates (UAE) who finished last in the demotion group that also had Oman and Kuwait.