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Published on August 29, 2007

The Thai ace developed the pain during a warm-up before her match against Austrian Sybille Bammer, who beat her 6-4 6-4. It was her second straight loss to the 20th ranked player, who is the reigning Pattaya Open champion.

"I felt the stiffness on my back during the warm-up. I couldn't put power on my serves,'' said Tamarine, who easily trounced Bammer 6-0 6-2 last year in Bangkok.

However, Tamarine believes she can recover in time for the doubles competition - in which she and Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus will face Taiwan's Hseih Su-wei and Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva.

The departure of Tamarine meant Danai Udomchoke is Thailand's lone hope in the singles competition at Flushing Meadows. Danai was due to play American Wayne Odesnik, No 156 in the world, late yesterday.

Meanwhile, linesmen and ball kids would be ducking for cover at this year's ATP Thailand Open, as three of the world's biggest servers are due to play at the event at Impact Arena in Muang Thong Thani.

Croatian Ivo Karlovic, Canadian Frank Dancevic and American Sam Querrery have agreed to compete in this

year's Thailand Open, which will be held from September 22-30.

Karlovic, who is ranked 30th in the world, has served more aces than any other player this year, and averages 20 aces a match. His serve has been clocked at 239kph.

Querrey, who jumped from 130 at the start of the season

to No 48 this week, has served the fifth highest number of

aces in matches this year. And in the recent tournament in Washington, served 10 aces in a row on his way to defeating James Blake.

Dancevic is the top-ranked Canadian player and com-peted at the Thailand Open

last year, when he was ranked No 92.

This year he has recorded wins over top players including Andy Roddick and Benjamin Becker and is currently ranked 69th in the world.

The Nation