After five years of survival in the top division of the Asia Oceania Davis Cup draw, Sri Lanka will have to make their way down to the lower division Group III after their 5-0 defeat to Indonesia in the relegation play-off that was held over the weekend in Surakarta, Indonesia.
Sri Lanka went into the draw with a member short as Sharmal Dissanayake had to pull out owing to illness. With Harshana Godamanne going in alongside newcomers Yasitha de Silva and Nishangan Nadaraja, Sri Lanka held a very slim chance of surviving the relegation tie.
Nishangan Nadaraja made his Davis Cup debut in the tie against Indonesia when Harshana Godamanne gave the 20-year-old the chance to play the reverse single on Sunday after Sri Lanka went 3-0 down at the conclusion of the doubles encounter.
However, Nadaraja won’t have many fond memories of his first Davis Cup encounter as the Indonesian Adithya Sasongko cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 win in the reverse singles. In similar fashion, Sri Lanka lost the final single which was the last encounter of the tie that Yasitha De Silva played.
David Susanto of Indonesia had it easy against the Lankan winning the game comfortably 6-3, 6-1.
Speaking to ThePapare on the loss in Indonesia, Harshana Godamanne said,
“Overall, we will take the positives and try to forget 2016 and have a fresh start to 2017. Thanks to everyone for the support. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it done this year. Group 2, we will be back soon”.
With this win, Indonesia will continue in Group II of the Asia Oceania zone of the Davis Cup and after a lapse of five years, Sri Lanka will be descending down to the third group. Here Sri Lanka will be grouped with eight other teams who will compete on a league basis and the top two performers will see themselves promoted to the top division.
