Thailand bids for unprecedented glory at Hopman Cup

Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan, left, and Tamarine Tanasugarn laugh as they talk tactics during their exhibition doubles games against Stefan Koubek and Barbara Schett of Austria in the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia, Friday, Jan. 7, 2000. Thailand won through to the final against South Africa due to earlier wins in the tournament.

Thailand's unprecedented run at the Hopman Cup has culminated in a place in the finals after Tamarine Tanasugarn defeated Austria's Barbara Schett 6-7,6-3,6-3. Tamarine and Paradorn Srichaphan will face South Africa's Amanda Coetzer and Wayne Ferreira in tomorrow's final.

Tamarine's dream run contines

Tamarine has had a wonderous week. Ranked 72nd in the world, Tamarine first beat Ai Sugiyama (24) of Japan in the qualifiers, followed by Australia's Jelena Dokic (43), the Slovak Republic's Henrietta Nagyova (34), and the tournament's top ranked female in Schett (8). She now comes up against the seasoned Coetzer, hoping to cement a place in the history books and bring home Thailand's first major tennis title.

Tamarine defeated Schett 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 in an hour and 45 minutes, by far her toughest match of the tournament. But she pulled out a secret weapon - her serve, which had mostly been spinning serves throughout the tournament, suddenly became very flat and fast, and they were particularly in evidence in the final set when in one game she blew three aces past the helpless Schett. Asked about her opponent tomorrow, the 11th-ranked Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, she said "I think Amanda she is a very consistent player and she has had a lot of experience and she been on tour more than me. It is not going to be easy for us, but we have nothing to lose again, and we will just try out best and try to play my games, try to concentrate on my games and you never know what will happen."

Paradorn downed by Austria's Koubek

In the men's singles, Paradorn came up against Koubek in a match which no longer had any bearing on the overall outcome. Hampered by a sore elbow, Paradorn was beaten easily by Koubek 3-6, 1-6. Asked about his injury, he replied "A bit sore on my elbow, but it is really different, not like yesterday, yesterday it was perfect, but after hitting warm-up yesterday, it was hurting and I get some treatment and then during the match yesterday nothing happened, just feeling normal, nothing, but today really hurt me. After I lost the first set it was getting really bad, I just kept it easy."

His opponent tomorrow is the 53rd-ranked Wayne Ferreira, ironically Paradorn's easiest match in the main draw. But Ferreira is a seasoned campaigner, once ranked as high as number 6 in the world, with former world #1 Pete Sampras amongst his past victims.

Thailand loses shortened mixed-doubles 8-7

Despite Paradorn's injury, both players gave their full effort during this match, with Paradorn seemingly having lost none of the pace on his serve, and Tamarine running and stretching for every ball, at one point losing her racket and ending up against the signboards. All four players, the Thai duo in particular, showed how much they enjoyed playing tennis without any pressure and treated the crowd to an entertaining match.

In tomorrow's match, the Cinderella Thai team will likely be heavily supported by the enthusiastic Australian crowd, who are known for their friendliness and their love of the underdog. And what a long way this underdog has come! Rank outsiders at 80-1 before the tournament, Thailand will still be an underdog in the final, and if they "play for fun" like they have all week, there's no doubt all the pressure is on the experienced South Africa team.

Go Thailand!

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Tamarine and Paradorn have been able to settle down in Perth, perhaps through the help of resident Thais. Excerpts from the post-match interview:

Have there been a lot of prominent people contacting you in the last couple of days?

Tamarine: I think a couple of calls in our room. Also we have very nice warm Thai people that stay in Perth they invite us to have Thai food.

Which restaurant was that?

Tamarine: I think Dusit Thai. What is the other one Individual Thai so it is two restaurants.

Is it good Thai food?

Tamarine: Mmmmmm, feel like home. You feel like when you go there, you are a family, you feel warm and that is nice.

Have you been surprised at how well you have been accepted from Perth, by the crowd and by the people?

Tamarine: I think so because you know, the people here are very nice, and they are very fair about it, even during when we play Australia they clap for us too and that is very, very nice, nice spectators here.

Thais are known for welcoming their brethren (or any one from the region) into their houses worldwide - yours truly experienced this first hand when visiting Las Vegas last year with a Thai friend, who upon meeting a Thai-born dealer quickly made friends and asked "Where can I get Thai food" upon which she was kind enough to take us to an excellent restaurant called Bangkok Boom, and even went out of her way to make heaps of food for us (she used to own a restaurant herself) and brought it to the hotel for us. My friend ate like it was the end of the world (I prefer any OTHER food but Thai!).

If you're out there cheering or reading this, thank you so much, Pi Sue! Go visit her at the Sahara Casino or perhaps Bangkok Boom if you get a chance - Thai food, Thai prices, American-sized portions!

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Thailand is a football, boxing and golf-mad country. Tennis ranks a poor fourth in the hearts of the people - or at least it did before today.

Cable broadcaster IBC had not even purchased rights to show the Hopman Cup live before Thailand qualified - but after the stunning upset of last year's champions Australia, IBC revamped their entire morning lineup to guarantee that the Hopman Cup would be shown live every day - and they have been justly rewarded. And just in case anyone missed any of the matches, IBC has been replaying the matches practically all day all night, justifiably proud of their home team.

Meanwhile, the people have not been paying much attention either - most responded with "Huh?" or "What's that?" when told about the team's success. Of course, this has changed as the Thai duo progressed through the tournament, and it's quite likely there will be tens of thousands, if not more, glued to their television sets tomorrow cheering Tamarine and Paradorn to victory.

What's more, this magnificent run is likely to cause a tremendous upsurge in the popularity of tennis in Thailand - which already has a few promising youngsters, but now we can expect Thailand to start producing more junior champions to carry Thailand truly and firmly into the world stage.

This same phenomena has happened with golf - where Tiger Woods was an absolute unknown until it was revealed that he was half-Thai! While the world's best golf players were hailing the then amateur Tiger as the new Jack Nicklaus, Thailand had only a couple of male golfers with moderate success on the Asian satellite tours.

But suddenly, golf is in. Thailand even has the top-ranked - get this - 9-year old girl in the world! And now tennis is sure to take off in the same manner, as Thailand steadily moves towards becoming a recognized sporting nation in the eyes of the world.

This is particularly important, considering that Thailand has always been a Southeast Asian powerhouse in a number of sports, and recently started turning heads in the Asian and Olympic games. Thailand is considering a bid for the 2008 Olympics, after successfully hosting a number of Asian Games, the most recent in 1998. Little do Tamarine and Paradorn know that their success is likely to have a positive influence on any possible bid, because the Olympics has never been held in a country without some world-class stars.

We now have world champion boxers, perhaps a world champion in mixed team tennis, a somewhat dubious claim to the world's best golfer (who is universally loved and respected anyhow), a football/soccer team which stunned Arsenal last year, scoring more goals than any Premier League team had managed all season against the Gunners, as well as a famous 9-man victory in overtime against Asian champions South Korea, and a number of highly-rated players in other sports such as badminton and swimming.