The veteran Harshana Godamanne and Sharmal Dissanayake swept the Lebanese pair off the courts in the 1st day of the Davis Cup Group II Asia Oceania relegation series winning the two singles to give Sri Lanka a 2-0 lead.
The courts of SLTA opened up for the relegation series this morning as ATP seed Sharmal Dissanakaya took to serve against Lebanese Jad Ballout. The game that lasted for almost an hour was followed up by his fellow countryman and Sri Lanka’s tennis veteran Harshana Godamanne winning his game to give Sri Lanka an early 2-0 lead in the five game series.
The 19 year old Dissanayake found his opponent to be an easy match up and thereby played an easy rallying game in the first set but later went on to play his unique aggressive game giving him a 2-0 win as his opponent Jad Ballout retired injured in the third set.
Dissanayaka had an easy 6-3 win in the first set while the second set was 6-2 win. The third set which saw Dissanayaka winning two games and Jad Ballout winning one had to be haulted in the fourth game as Ballout had to walk off the court due to an persistent injury. The referees unanimously awarded Dissanayake the win.
The second game saw the experienced Harshana Godamanne taking on 17 year old Hady Habib. Godamanne being the most experienced Sri Lankan in the Davis Cup circuit saw some heavy competition put forward by Habib in the 1st set despite Godamanne winning it 7-5. The second and third sets were a piece of cake for the Sri Lankan winning them 6-3,6-3. The game lasted for two hours as the teenage Habib gave the veteran good competition. With this win Godamanne registers his 60th Davis Cup win under his name as Sri Lanka took a 2-0 lead on the very first day.
Play will resume tomorrow at 10.00 a.m. for the doubles encounter. The duo hailing from Royal College, Sharmal Dissanayaka and Harshana Godamanne will pair up once again for the doubles to meet Jad Ballout & Giovani Samaha in an encounter which will decide whether the excitement lives for the entire three days.
A must win for the tourists if they have any prospects of surviving in the top tier but on the books the prediction says that will be a Sri Lankan victory tomorrow in the doubles as well.
