Sri Lanka in her first tie beat Morocco 3-0 at this year’s World Team Cup, the World Cup of Wheelchair Tennis, hosted by the Dutch Tennis Federation (KNLTB) at the Nieuwe Sloot Tennis Centre in Alphen, Netherlands from May 26 until June 1.
RESULTS – MAY 28:
Upali Rajakaruna bt Ayoub Ettali 6-3, 6-3
Gamini Dissanayake bt Boukartacha Lhaj 6-3, 6-1
G. Dissanayake & U. Rajakaruna bt A. Ettali & Fouad Boughnim 6-3, 6-1
Sri Lanka was meeting strong Belgium on Thursday.
MEN’S WORLD GROUP-II 2014:
Group ‘A’ – Brazil, Germany and Malaysia
Group ‘B’ – Sri Lanka, Belgium and Morocco
Group ‘C’ – Spain, Switzerland and Greece
Group ‘D’ – Italy, Canada and Romania
The BNP Paribas World Team Cup is the wheelchair tennis equivalent of the Davis Cup and Fed Cup. There are divisions for Men, Women, Quads and a Junior events, supported by the Cruyff Foundation. Sri Lanka has been featuring in Men’s World Group-II since 2004. A country needs to enter the final of that Group so as to qualify for Men’s World Group-I, the top most segment in the Men’s competition. A total of 52 teams from 31 countries are contesting in this annual event this year.
The World Team Cup was created in 1985 due to the growth of foreign participation in the US Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships. By 1991, the US Open Wheelchair Championships and the World Team Cup had grown beyond anyone’s expectations and having the events back-to-back was too much for the US Open organizers. Therefore it was moved to a new location and a different time of year. The event has now been staged in 16 different countries and is a massive stand-alone tournament with over 300 participants and around 150 additional guests and coaches each year.
BNP Paribas became the title sponsor for the event in 2011, following 15 years of sponsorship by Invacare.
SRI LANKA’S RECORD –
1996 (in New Zealand) – 28th Place, 1997 (England) – 32nd, 2004 (NZ) – (first time in Men’s WG-II) 13th, 2005 (Netherlands) – 10th, 2006 (Brazil) – 13th, 2007 (Sweden) – 13th, 2008 (Italy) – 11th, 2009 (England) – 5th, 2010 (Turkey) – 4th, 2011 (S. Africa) – 5th, 2012 (S. Korea) – 3rd and 2013 (Turkey) – 5th
