Ratiwatana Twins Win Historic Universiade Gold

Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana claim the men's doubles gold medal for the Thai tennis team

  The tournament' favourites who produced the Asian Games silver medal last year were briefly tested by their opponents in the opener before employing their superb net play to prevail in the second.

  "They had a very strange doubles game because they stayed at the baseline and relied on big serves and groundstrokes. But after we held the third game in the second set, we were more confident and felt relaxed," said elder brother Sonchat who won the first ever tennis gold medal for the Kingdom in the World University Games. They won the bronze in the 2005 edition in Izmir.

  "We would like to thank our family for always being there for us. We also would like thank the fans in the stadium as well as those at homes for cheering us,'' said Sanchai who aims at gaining a slot into the Beijing Olympics next year.

  Thailand stands a shot at wining one more gold from Danai Udomchoke who will play An Jae-sung from South Korea in tomorrow's final.

Lerpong Amsa-ngiam

The Nation