Published on October 07, 2005

[TENNIS] Asian No 1 Paradorn Srichaphan waited out persistent rain delays to storm past Japan’s Takahiro Terachi and move into the third round of the US$860,000 Japan Open yesterday. The match was several hours behind schedule due to the rain which forced organisers to postpone most of the matches to today. The ninth-seeded Thai shut out his unfancied opponent, ranked only 431st in the world, in straight sets 6-1 6-4 in 73 minutes.

Paradorn sailed through the first five games in 15 minutes, breaking the Japanese wild card holder in the fourth game to lead 4-1. He secured another break in the next game and served out the set to win 6-1 in only 21 minutes.

The Thai then strode to a 3-1 lead after breaking his opponent in the third game of the second set. However, Terachi started to fight back, breaking Paradorn for the first time for a 3-3 tie.

There was a long deuce in the seventh game before the Thai proved the better of the two in crucial points, breaking for a 4-3 lead and then holding on to lead 5-3. Paradorn gave one more game to Terachi before closing out the 52-minute second set 6-4.

Paradorn will play the winner of the match between seventh-seeded Jarkko Nieminem of Finland and Germany’s Rainer Schuettler in the third round.

Big field for Thai Open

Players from 26 countries will take to the court in the first US$200,000 PTT Thailand Open at the Rama Gardens Hotel from the October 8-16.

Players from Russia, Argentina, the Czech Republic, the US, France, Italy, India, Spain, Germany, Austria, Japan, China and South Korea will be in action.

The leading stars will be world No 9 Nadia Petrova of Russia, 16-year-old sensation Nicole Vaidisova, a champion in Seoul last week, and Indian star Sania Mirza, a new power-hitter on the tour.

Japan has the most players in the tournament, their assault being led by Japanese No 1 Shinobu Asagoe, who is ranked No 32 and recently reached the quarter-finals of the China Open before falling to world No 1 Maria Sharapova.

For much of her career Asagoe has been in the shadow of compatriot Ai Sugiyama. This year she achieved her highest ranking of No 21 after reaching a final in Auckland and a semi-final in Tokyo.

Tickets for the PTT Thailand Open are between Bt300 and Bt500 from Monday, October 10

to Thursday, October 13, and Bt500, Bt1,000 and Bt1,500 from Friday, October 14 to Sunday, October 16.

For further information and bookings, call the ticket hotlines: 02-3818703-4 and 02-3823491-3, or visit the official website at www. pentanglepromotions.com.

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