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Published on October 12, 2007

Tamarine Tanasugarn maximised all her efforts to end her losing streaks to Venus Williams but it was not enough to dethrone the American Terminator in their second-round match at the US$200,000 PTT Bangkok Open yesterday.

For 36 minutes in the first set, the Thai lone hope counterpunched with the big-hitting Williams but in the end the more vigorous Williams sailed through the quarter-final with a 6-4 6-1 win in one hour and 14 minutes.

History repeated as Tamarine was still unable to take a set from the former world No 1 and has yet to win more than six games in each encounter.

"I did all my best but she proved why she used to be the world No 1. She served so well and I couldn't return at all," said the 2006 finalist who would drop out of the world top 100 next week.

"I will have to work harder until the end of the year to get back into the top 100. I will play in a few challengers in China and hopefully will gain enough points to secure my spot in the Australian Open main draw next year," Tamarine said.

Williams, who earlier had to complete her first-round match against Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark which was postponed from Wednesday at 6-2 4-1 due to rain, paid compliments for the Thai effort.

 "She played aggressive and went for her shots, trying to do the best for the fans. But I tried to take control of the match and I'm happy that I closed her out,"' said Venus who appeared in three different outfits in three occasions on court for the first two rounds. She said had six different tennis dresses for the tournament.

Boosted by some 2,000 fans, Tamarine appeared most determined than ever to challenge the high-profiled opponent who had beaten her in their previous five matches. The Thai got an early break to build a 3-1 lead and at times whipped winners to surprise the big-hitting Williams.

However, the reigning Wimbledon champion generated more pace from the baseline and delivered thundering serves at will to grab a lead at 5-4.

She and Tammy traded nail-bitting rallies in the 10th game until a Williams' deep ball that clipped the baseline kept the Thai off momentum and cost her the set.

The Thai fought hard to stay with her aggressive opponent in their groundstrokes duel but the harder she tried, the deeper she dug her own grave as she ended up with errors.

In the other second round match, third seed Shahar Peer of Israel breezed into the quarter-finals with an easy 6-1 6-1 win over Russian Anastasia Rodionova, who had a back injury. Urszula Radwanska of Poland snapped the 11 winning streaks of Virginie Razzano  with a 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 victory.

Two Asians successfully booked their spots in the last eight. Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan beat Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada 4-6 6-3 6-2 while giant killer Zi Yan of China rallied to beat Olga Pouthkova of Russia 3-6 1-6 1-6.

Lerpong Amsa-ngiam

The Nation

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