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Published on August 16, 2007

Never before had Thailand won a gold medal in the World University Games tennis competition. The only medal the Thai tennis team had produced before was a bronze in the 2003 Games, also by the two brothers.

The Ratiwatana siblings entered the tournament as the hot-favourites and ended the way everybody expected them to. They were briefly tested by second-seeded Pavel Chekhov and Alexander Rasnorutskiy of Russia before prevailing 7-6 (7-1) 6-2 in front of some 1,000 fans at the LTAT National Tennis Centre.

"It was a bit difficult to play them at the beginning. They stayed at the baseline and relied on big serves and groundstrokes instead of coming to the net," said elder brother Sonchat, a law student at Sripatum University.

"We would like to thank our family and the fans for their support,'' said Sanchai, who still has no plans about how he is going to spend the Bt2 million the government promised for the victory. Australian Open doubles runners-up Chan yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung of Taiwan took the gold as expected with a 4-6 6-2 6-2 win over Amina and Madina Rakhim of Kazakhstan.

Meanwhile, local hope Danai Udomchoke brushed aside his injury worries and Taiwan's Chen Ti 6-2 6-4 in only 72 minutes in the men's singles semi-final. His finals opponent is South Korean An Jae-sung, a 6-3 6-4 winner over France's Charles Antoine Brezac.

Danai is not counting on his chances due to an injured right foot. "The pain comes and goes. I don't want to say that I'm 100 per cent confident of my chances, but I have a little edge over him,'' said Danai, who had to nurse his injured right foot and left knee after the match.

In the women's singles semi-final, two-time Wimbledon junior doubles champion Alisa Kleybanova of Russia, the third seed, dealt a big blow to the Taiwanese team with an upset win over Chan Chin-wei of Taiwan, seeded second, 6-0 6-1. The 18-year-old from Moscow will take on Estonia's Margit Ruutel, who halted the surprise run of Indonesian Sandy Gumulaya 6-2 7-5.

"I arrived here knowing it would be difficult as I had to play a lot of matches in the heat. I'm happy that I got through to the final and I will try to finish in first place,'' said the first year Physical Education student of the Russian State University.

In the mixed doubles, Kleybanova and Alexander Krasnorutskiy will play second-seeds Pavel Snobel and Eva Hrdinova of the Czech Republic in the final today.

Lerpong Amsa-ngiam

The Nation