Nadaraja secures place in SL Davis Cup Team

Nishangan Nadaraja secured his place in the Sri Lanka Team for the Davis Cup Tournament when he finished on top after the third and final selection trials worked off at the SLTA Courts in Green Path.

Nadarajawill be the fourth player in the Sri Lanka Davis Cup Team after he defeated Alex Firebanks 1-6, 6-2, 6-0 and Avindra Perera 6-2, 6-0 in the final selection trial matches.

Meanwhile, Firebanks was selected as the reserve player in the Sri Lanka Davis Cup Team after he defeated Ravindra Perera 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 in their selection trial match.     

Earlier, three players Harshana Godamanna, Shamal Dissanayake and Yasitha de Silva had directly secured their places in the Sri Lanka Davis Cup Team. 

In fact, Godamanna who is currently based in Canada is scheduled to arrive on Monday (19) and will join the rest of the players for training under the guidance of Assistant Coach Renouk Wijemanna.   

A total of nine top players participated in the selection trials which were conducted in three stages under the supervision of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association.

Dumindu Dilum, Anish Weerasinghe, Nenuka Jayathilake and Avindra Perera competed in the first stage with the latter finishing on top after recording the most number of victories.

Avindra also took major honours during the second stage of the selection trials which also included three other players Prasanna Athauda, Madusha Wijesuriya and R. Cheskha.

However, in the third and final stage Avindra lost to Nadaraja and Firebanks and with that his chances of securing a place in the Sri Lanka Davis Cup Team was dashed.