You are here: HomeSports2005 02 28Article 76211

Tennis News of Monday, 28 February 2005

Source: GNA

Finnish team arrives for Davis Cup showdown

Accra, Feb. 28, GNA- The Finnish tennis team arrived in the country on Sunday evening aboard a Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) flight for their scheduled Euro-African Zone II Davis Cup tie against Ghana's Golden Racket billed to commence on Friday, March 4.

The six-member contingent made up of four players and two officials is captained (coached) by Joakim Berneri. The players ready to do battle with their Ghanaian counterparts are top seed Jarkko Nieminem, Tuomas Ketola, Lauri Kliski and Tommi Lenho plus Seppo Pahkonen, a physiotherapist. US-based and top seed Henry Adjei-Darko, former number one seed Gunther Darkey, Salifu Mohammed and evergreen Daniel Omaboe will represent Ghana in the three-day competition, which ends on Sunday at the Ohene Djan (Accra) Sports Stadium. The visitors, currently lodged at the plush Golden Tulip Hotel, begin their first training session later on Monday at the centre court of the Ohene Djan Stadium.

Officials of the National Sports Council (NSC) told the GNA Sports on Monday that Jarkko, ranked 77 in the world, would be the one to watch. It would be the second time that the two countries would cross each other's path in 10 years. Finland walloped Ghana 5-0 in their first meeting.

The Davis Cup consists of five matches - four singles and one doubles played over three days. On the opening day, the Number Two singles player for each nation is mandated to engage the Number One seed of the opposing nation. The Number One players are matched against each other on day three while the second seeds clash each other in the fifth match. All are played over best-of-five-sets with no tiebreak in the fifth set.