The press conference for the 2014 Davis Cup (Asia Oceania group 2) tie between the Phillipines and Sri Lanka was held on the 28th of January at the Cinnamon Lakeside hotel.
The president of the SLTA Mr. Iqbal Bin Isack addressed the gathering and extended his warm wishes to the members of both teams who are set to face off against each other from the 31st of January to the 2nd of February at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association hard courts.
Mr. Rohan de Silva who spoke on behalf of the Sri Lankan team stated ‘We are coming into this tie as the underdogs but we have performed well against top notch teams and even beaten a few of them so I believe that we have the potential to create an upset and score our first win against the Phillipines. The team from the host nation comprises Harshana Godamanna, Rajeev Rajapakse, Dineshkanthan Thangarajah and Sharmal Dissanayake.
The team from the Phillipines is considered to be the strongest team in the tournament and features
the likes of Treat Huey, Ruban Gonzales, Johnny Arcilla and Patrick John Tierro. Phillipines reached the finals of Asia Oceania Group 11 event last year and the team believes that they can go one step further and win the tournament this year.
The referee for this tie is Mr Javier Sansierra from Spain while Dharaka Ellawala and Prasad Jayalatharachchi from Sri Lanka will be the two chair umpires. Dinith Pathiraja is the tournament director for this tie.
The winners of this tie will take on the winners of the tie between Pakistan and Vietnam which is also scheduled to take place over the weekend whilst the losers of the two encounters will meet in a relegation play off in April.
