When Thai star Tamarine Tanasugarn asked for a trainer during her match against Wimbledon junior champion Agnieszka Radwanska, it was a sign that her time at the All England Club was running out.

Time after time the Thai scrambled to reach drop shots from the sly 17-year-old from Poland and ended up losing points. It was clear to the crowd how the match was going to end.

Although Tamarine gritted her teeth and fought off two match points at 6-3 5-1 to hold serve, her resistance did not last. The precocious Radwanska mixed lobs with short balls to serve out the match 6-3 6-2.

The injury to Tamarine's her right knee that she picked in qualifying was aggravated and pain spread to her thigh.

"It's been bothering me since the qualifying rounds, but I tried to play and take my chances. But after five matches, my condition became worse," said Tamarine, who played three qualifying matches and three more in the main draw.

A seventh fourth round birth at Wimbledon would have been much better for the 164th ranked Thai, who has been struggling to return to the top 100.

"It's disappointing to lose when I could have won the match and climbed up the rankings," she said. "If I had not been injured and had made fewer mistakes, I believe I could have beat her."

The loss was bitter-sweet for Tamarine. She was relegated to challenger level tournaments and did not win a match on the main WTA tour this year until she upset the 36th ranked Catalina Castano of Columbia here at Wimbledon in the opening round.

"The confidence is coming back," she said. "I'm glad that I proved I still can play good tennis. I just have to be really tough physically to challenge these young players," added Tamarine, who was asked if it was time to hang up her racquet.

"Not in the next two years. Before Wimbledon, I came to the crossroads and didn't know what to do next. I almost went home after I could not qualify at Birmingham.

"Now that I've reached round three, I can say that retirement is not going to happen in the near future."

Tamarine put in the best performance of the record five Thais taking part at Wimbledon this year. Paradorn Srichaphan and Danai Udomchoke had to pack their bags after the first round.

Also sharing the limelight were Thai twins and doubles specialists Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana, who managed to win their first match in their Grand Slam debut before losing 6-4 6-4 6-2 to the highly experienced eighth-seeds Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Todd Perry of Australia in the second round.

"There are so many good memories here. We played our first Grand Slam at Wimbledon and we won a match," said the older Sonchat, after they defeated American Kevin Kim and Cecil Mamiit of the Philippines in the first round in five thrilling sets.

"That was the first time we won a five-set match. The green grass is classy and we could not get enough of the strawberries and cream. We will leave here with plenty to remember," the younger Sanchai added.

The twins also learned a valuable lesson - that they have to work very hard if they want to stay close to the top doubles teams.

"Physically we could not recover from the tough first round. As the second match proceeded, we became more and more tired. This is one of the aspects of our game we have to fix," said Sanchai.

Martina Hingis saw her dreams of a second title ended by Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama, who won their third round clash 7-5 3-6 6-4 on Thursday.

Meanwhile, China's No 3 Peng Shuai was beaten in the third round yesterday, falling 6-2 6-3 to Italian 16th seed Flavia Pennetta.

Peng, who knocked out Israeli 20th seed Shahar Peer in the previous round, was hampered by a knee injury that she sustained in the fourth game of the first set.

Pennetta will now face either Russian fourth seed Maria Sharapova or the US's Amy Frazier for a place in the quarter-finals.

Peng's exit leaves Li Na as the only Chinese left in the women's singles. Li, the first Chinese woman to reach the last 16 at the All England club, will play Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic on Monday for a place in the quarter-finals.

Nadal stops Agassi

nAndre Agassi's epic Wimbledon journey, which began in misery in 1987 and peaked with his 1992 title triumph, came to an end yesterday when Rafael Nadal sent him crashing out on his farewell appearance.

The 36-year-old was no match for the Spanish world No 2, who made the most of his 16-year advantage to pile on the pain for the American, winning their third round clash 7-6 (7/5) 6-2 6-4.

Agassi, playing in his 14th and final Wimbledon, simply wilted under a combination of Nadal's constant brutal barrage as well as the searing 30-degree Centre Court temperatures.

Dogged by constant back pain in recent seasons, Agassi had already announced his intention to quit after the US Open later this year.

If he had any doubts over that decision, they would have rapidly disappeared after his face-to-face meeting with the muscle-bound double French Open champion, the future of the sport.

Nadal was always on top despite needing a tie-break to settle the first set.

Lerpong Amsa-ngiam

The Nation

Wimbledon