On Wednesday, Tennis Cambodia’s men’s national team will enter the courts once more in the longest-running international team event in the world, the Davis Cup.
This year’s campaign is being held in Amman, Jordan, from September 11 -14 at the Jordan Tennis Association’s home courts in downtown Amman.
Seven years ago, Tennis Cambodia shocked the region in their Asia/Oceania Zone Group IV Davis Cup debut in Doha, Qatar by sweeping all five nations they faced in 2012.
After earning promotion in 2012, Cambodia competed in Group III for the next four years until being relegated for the first time.
In 2017, in the Group IV campaign in Bahrain, Cambodia achieved similar success to their debut in 2012, going undefeated and earning promotion for the second time in their short Davis Cup history.
After being relegated from Group III again in 2018’s campaign in Hanoi, Vietnam, the team is looking to earn promotion out of Group IV and back into Group III once more.
Currently the national team is ranked 106th in the world, sitting between Mongolia and Mozambique.
Tennis Cambodia secretary-general Tep Rithivit told The Post: “Our record in Group IV play is an great achievement, but we will not let our perfect record on paper get in the way of what we came here to do, which is play like every ball matters.
After all, we are representing our country of Cambodia.
“Through the last seven years we have slowly seen the level of Davis Cup rise, and especially in the lowest group, Group IV, so we are not about to take anything for granted.
“I think if our guys stay focused on their tennis, I have no doubt that they will make our country proud of their efforts come next week.”
As the team prepares for their first match on Wednesday, they will do so knowing that support for their campaign has reached new heights.
Family members of players and captains, and friends of the federation will join us next week to cheer on the team at the Jordan Tennis Association courts.
Back in Phnom Penh, the team will also have support from local sponsors La Plantation (Kampot Pepper Plantation), Devenco, and last but not least Decathlon Cambodia that has equipped the team with track suits, playing uniforms, and the required accessories needed to compete at their highest level.
Jean-Baptiste Prigent, retail leader of Decathlon Cambodia, the French-based sporting goods company that has recently celebrated its one-year anniversary in Aeon Mall SenSok, told The Post: “Decathlon is very proud to be a partner of Tennis Cambodia for the 2019 Davis Cup Campaign in Jordan.
“We hope our Artengo products will help them to reach their desired results. Good luck to Tennis Cambodia’s Davis Cup team!”
To support the Kingdom’s Davis Cup campaign, watch the matches live at the Davis Cup website: www.daviscup.com
