TOR CHITTINAND
Tamarine Tanasugarn. |
Thai tennis star Tamarine Tanasugarn said yesterday she was delighted to receive a special invitation to play in next month's Olympics. Tamarine, 31, who has appeared in three previous Games, initially missed out on representing her country in Beijing because her world ranking was too low at the time the cut was made after the French Open.
But she has since enjoyed a good run in which she won the Ordina Open in the Netherlands and reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon before losing to eventual champion Venus Williams.
Thanks to her impressive form and four withdrawals, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) handed her one of the four wild-card berths.
''I was really surprised and glad when I heard that I was going to play in the Olympics Games. It is an honour for my family and myself to serve the nation in the Olympics,'' Tamarine said at a press conference.
''I see this tournament as tougher than the Grand Slams. It is very tough because the draw is 64 and there is a high chance that you will meet a big name in an early round. On the other hand, each Grand Slam has 128 players.''
Tamarine, ranked 38th in the world, said it would not be easy for her to win a medal but she would try her best and concentrate match by match.
Her best result in the Olympics was a second-round appearance in the singles in the 2000 Sydney Games.
She will leave for Canada tomorrow to participate in the Rogers Cup in Montreal before heading to Beijing for her fourth successive Olympic appearance. ''I have to look after myself well because I will be travelling from one continent to another. This will make me feel tired,'' she said, adding her injured right hand was getting better after taking a three-week break.
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