Thailand seek elusive tennis singles gold

Top Asian tennis stars Paradorn Srichapan and Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand jet into the Asian Games in South Korea this week as their country's best chance of winning its first singles gold.

Both are playing in the Japan Open, but will arrive in Pusan in time for the singles and doubles tournaments on October 6 and 7.

After the disappointment of the last Games in Bangkok, where Paradorn crashed out in the first round to Takahiro Terachi of Japan, and Tamarine lost to Nany Rahayu of Indonesia, the Thais now believe gold is in their grasp.

"We're expecting Paradorn to win gold, and Tamarine to reach the semi-finals at least this Asiad. But if she's fortunate with the draw who knows?" Sathien Montkhongthan, the vice president of Thailand's Lawn Tennis Association told Reuters.

Paradorn, ranked number 31 in the world and the highest seeded male player in Pusan, recently won his first ATP title in August -- the TD Waterhouse Cup in Commack, New York -- and is presently enjoying his best year on the professional circuit.

"His game has consistently improved, and he is now playing some of the most excellent tennis of his career," said Sathien.

This year, Paradorn also beat former world number one Andre Agassi on Wimbledon's Centre Court in July and led Thailand to a Davis Cup World Group playoff against Britain for the first time in its history.

Sathien considers Paradorn's major rivals in the Asiad to be Uzbekistan's Oleg Ogorodov, Japan's Goichi Motomura and South Korea's Lee Hyung-taik.

Ranked number 79, Lee is the only other Asian in the top-100 and is considered the most likely to topple Paradorn.

Paradorn lost to world number 183 Goichi in a Davis Cup tie in April, although he did beat the 148th-ranked Ogorodov in a five-set thriller in the Davis Cup in February.

Tamarine, number 27 in the world, is recovering from an injury to her left finger and has been struggling to regain the form that propelled her to number 19 earlier this year.

She tops the women's singles seedings due to the absence of Asia's best player Ai Sugiyama of Japan and will be hoping her experience will see her through.

Tamarine may have problems against Indonesia's world number 75 Angelique Widjaja, who beat the Thai on the way to her first professional title in Bali last year, and Uzbekistan's Iroda Tulyaganova, who leads the Thai head-to-head 2-1.