National Trials to be part of the Sri Lanka Men’s Davis Cup team got underway on Sunday (5th January) at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association courts.
Nine contenders have been shortlisted to compete in this year’s trials with 2 senior represents being exempted and directly given spots in this year’s team.
Sharmal Dissanayake is one of the two players who will be included in the team directly as Sri Lanka’s Men’s No.1 ranked player as of 09th December 2019. Sri Lanka’s best performer at the recently concluded South Asian Games, Harshana Godamanne has also been given a direct entry in view of his outstanding performances in the Davis Cup in 2019.
Singles trials will be held among the next top 8 ranked players and Savith Weerasinghe who is an overseas based player and was a member of the DC team last year. At least one player will be selected for Doubles while either one or two players will be selected from the singles trials. The number would depend on the composition of the team (4 or 5-member team is yet to be confirmed by ITF).
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The format for the trials and match schedule is as follows,
Direct selection
- Sharmal Dissanayake
- Harshana Godamanne
Singles trials
1.Suren Balachandran
2.Sanka Athukorala
3.Akila Vimukthi
4.Sean Sanderson
5.Dumindu Dilum
6.Yasitha De Silva
7.Thehan Wijemanne
8.Kavisha Rathnayake
9.Savith Weerasinghe
Trials process and draw will be carried out as follows,
Stage 1 (Pre-trials)
Will be played among #4 to #9 as follows,
05th January (Sunday)
8.00 a.m. Sean Sanderson v Yasitha De Silva
11.00 a.m. Dumindu Dilum v Kavisha Rathnayake
1.00 p.m. Savith Weerasinghe v Thehan Wijemanne
06th January (Monday)
08.00 a.m. Sean Sanderson v Thehan Wijemanne
11.00 a.m. Dumindu Dilum v Savith Weerasinghe
1.00 p.m. Yasitha De Silva v Kavisha Rathnayake
07th January (Tuesday)
8.00 a.m. Yasitha De Silva v Dumindu Dilum
11.00 a.m. Sean Sanderson v Savith Weerasinghe
1.00 p.m. Thehan Wijemanne v Kavisha Rathnayake
09th January (Thursday)
8.00 a.m. Sean Sanderson v Kavisha Rathnayake
1.00 p.m. Savith Weerasinghe v Yasitha De Silva
10th January (Friday)
8.00 a.m. Sean Sanderson v Dumindu Dilum
11.00 a.m. Savith Weerasinghe v Kavisha Rathnayake
1.00 p.m. Yasitha De Silva v Thehan Wijemanne
11th January (Saturday)
11.00 a.m. Dumindu Dilum v Thehan Wijemanne
The top 3 players from Stage 1 Pre-trials (Q1, Q2 and Q3) will join #1 to #3 and play in a round robin league (Stage 2 Trials) as detailed hereunder. The results of the matches between Q1, Q2 and Q3 from Stage 1 will be carried forward to Stage 2.
Stage 2 Trials
07th January (Tuesday)
3.00 p.m. Suren Balachandran v Sanka Athukorala
08th January (Wednesday)
3.00 p.m. Sanka Athukorala v Akila Vimukthi
09th January (Thursday)
3.00 p.m. Suren Balachandran v Akila Vimukthi
13th January (Monday)
8.00 a.m. Suren Balachandran v Q2
11.00 a.m. Sanka Athukorala v Q3
1.00 p.m. Akila Vimukthi v Q1
14th January (Tuesday)
8.00 a.m. Suren Balachandran v Q3
11.00 a.m. Sanka Athukorala v Q1
1.00 p.m. Akila Vimukthi v Q2
15th January (Wednesday)
8.00 a.m. Suren Balachandran v Q1
11.00 a.m. Sanka Athukorala v Q2
1.00 p.m. Akila Vimukthi v Q3
Playing conditions
- All Singles matches will be of best of 3 Tie break sets.
- *If a player gives a walk over he/she is deemed to have withdrawn from the particular event, unless its due to an injury during the match.
- The rank of players will be based on the most number of wins.
- If 2 players have the same number of wins, the player who has won the head to head match between the 2 tied players will be ranked ahead of the other.
- If more than 2 players have the same number of wins and the head to head results are equal, the net sets won (Total number of sets won – total number of sets lost) will decide the ranking order. The net sets count will be from the matches played between the players who are tied only.
- If the Net sets too are equal, the net games won (Total number of games won – total number of games lost) will decide the ranking order. The net games count will be from the matches played between the players who are tied only.
- Matches will be played on clay courts. However, in the event of bad weather, matches may have to be shifted to Hard courts.
- There may be date/time changes to the schedule in view of inclement weather, court and umpire availability constraints.
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