The 21st century
Thailand · born Los Angeles, 1977 · Thailand's highest-ranked woman · 's-Hertogenbosch champion 2008 and 2009
All playersBack to the rankings
19
Career-high WTA singles ranking, May 2002, the best by a Thai woman
4
WTA singles titles, two of them on grass
7
Times in the second week of the Wimbledon singles, 1998 to 2008
11
Grass-court matches won in a row in June and July 2008
2011
Wimbledon doubles semi-final with Marina Erakovic
Tamarine Tanasugarn was born in Los Angeles in 1977 and moved to Bangkok with her family at five. Her father, a former Thai international basketball player, encouraged her into tennis and paid for her junior career. She turned professional in 1994 and at 17 reached the 1995 Wimbledon girls' final, beating Anna Kournikova in the semi-finals before losing to Aleksandra Olsza. She became the first player from Thailand to reach the top 100.
Between 1998 and 2004 she reached the fourth round at Wimbledon six times, losing to Martina Hingis, Serena Williams, Monica Seles and others. She rose to No. 19 in May 2002, the highest ranking by a Thai woman, and won her first WTA title in Hyderabad in 2003. Injuries then pushed her out of the top 100, and in 2006 she came close to retiring.
From 2008, past 30, she had her best years on grass: titles at 's-Hertogenbosch in 2008 and 2009 and a first Wimbledon quarter-final in 2008, the first by a Thai player at a Grand Slam. In 2010 she won Osaka, beating Kimiko Date-Krumm in the oldest WTA final of the Open Era by combined age, and in 2011 she reached the Wimbledon doubles semi-finals with Marina Erakovic. She won four singles and eight doubles titles on the WTA Tour, retired from singles in 2016 and opened a tennis academy in Thailand.
| 's-Hertogenbosch 2008 | Ranked 85, beat Dinara Safina, the Roland Garros runner-up, 7-5, 6-3 in the final |
|---|---|
| 's-Hertogenbosch 2009 | Beat Flavia Pennetta from a set down in the quarter-finals and the world No. 1 Dinara Safina in the semi-finals, her first win over a reigning No. 1, then Yanina Wickmayer 6-3, 7-5 in the final |
| Wimbledon 2008 | With one day off to travel to London after her 's-Hertogenbosch title, she beat the 13th seed Vera Zvonareva 7-6, 4-6, 6-3, Marina Erakovic 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 and the second seed Jelena Janković 6-3, 6-2 before losing her first Grand Slam quarter-final to Venus Williams 6-4, 6-3 |
| Birmingham 2000 | Lost the final to Lisa Raymond 6-2, 6-7, 6-4 |
| Wimbledon doubles 2011 | Entered with Marina Erakovic as lucky losers, beat the third seeds Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber 4-6, 7-6, 13-11 and reached the semi-finals, where they lost to Sabine Lisicki and Samantha Stosur |
| 's-Hertogenbosch (Rosmalen) | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Women's singles Rosmalen Grass Court Championships | |
| 2009 | Women's singles Rosmalen Grass Court Championships | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"My strokes are quite flat and my game was all about attacking through placement."
The person behind the player.
Bangkok, mid-1990s
In her late teens she was stuck around No. 200 for nearly two years and wanted to quit. Family friends told her father he was crazy to let her play instead of study. He sold his antique car to pay for two months of tournaments in Europe, and told her that one bad day did not mean she had failed.
Source: WTAWimbledon fortnights
During the Championships she rented a house 15 minutes from the grounds and used a day off to buy Asian ingredients in Chinatown so she could cook tom yum soup, Thai basil chicken and a "really spicy" panang curry. In seeded years she was given the upper locker room, with its jacuzzi, but preferred the lower one, where her friends were.
Source: WTAWimbledon, 2006
At 29 she had to qualify for Wimbledon and told her coach that if she did not reach the third round she would retire. She reached it, and later said that playing without expectation that year gave her a second life in her career.
Source: WTAUS Open, 2003
Two games from beating Daniela Hantuchová on a show court, she held serve for 5-3, screamed and saluted her team as she walked to the net, thinking she had won. The stadium went quiet. She went back to the baseline and won the match a second time. "Life...oops!" she said years later.
Source: WTALos Angeles to Bangkok
Her father played for Thailand's national basketball team at the pre-Olympic qualifying tournaments of 1960 and 1964. He was not a tennis player, but, she said, he understood athletics and never shouted or told her negative things.
Source: Olympedia; WTAFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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