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Published on February 9, 2008

Tamarine Tanasug-arn's  exploits at this year's US$170,000 Pattaya Women's Open came to a sudden halt yesterday as the Thai star bowed out in the quarter-final to Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.

The error-prone Thai saw her game self-destruct as she suffered a 6-2 6-3 defeat to the 18-year-old Pole, who also tamed her in the third round of the 2006 Wimbledon.

"She didn't miss a shot. She was very solid and waited for the right time to attack," said the unseeded Thai. "As for me, I made too many mistakes. I was trying too many things when I should have stuck to my original game plan."

The persistent Rad-wanska lured Tamarine to take risks which resulted in errors as she raced to a 5-0 lead in the first set. Tamarine took the next two games before the Polish finished an ineffective drop shot from the Thai with a forehand winner to take the set.

In a fiercely-contested second set, the stubborn Radwanska had an answer to everything that Tamarine threw at her. The Thai ended up losing patience in long rallies and surrendered the match on the third match point after Radwanska whacked a backhand winner.

"She deserves to be No 21 in the world. If she develops her ground strokes she could even go higher,'' the 105th ranked Tamarine said.

Despite the defeat, Tamarine's quarter-final showing here will earn her enough points to make the top 100 next week.

"Yeah, I finally get back into the top 100," said a delighted Tamarine. "I need to maintain this form to guarantee my place in the main draws of the French Open and Wimbledon,'' she said.

Radwanska, who had her toughest test in the first round against American Vania King, was pleased with her performance which saw her win all her three matches in straight sets.

"The first five games finished pretty fast. She made many mistakes. Then she started to play better. The second set was tough as she made me play some good shots. I had to finish the ball,'' said the 18-year-old who upset former world No 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia on her way to the Australian Open quarter-final last month.

Radwanska, the heavy favourite to win at the coastal city this week, will play the semi-final against Ekaterina Bychkova of Russia, who saved a match point to beat compatriot Vesna Manasieva 4-6 7-6 (8/6) 6-3 in a marathon match which lasted 2 hours and 31 minutes.

In the other semis, American seventh-seeded Jill Craybas did not have much of a problem in picking off Andreja Klepac of Slovenia 6-4 6-4 in one hour and 26 minutes. She will play Akgul Amanmura-dova of Uzbekistan,

who upset fourth-seeded Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan 6-1

7-6 (7/5).

Lerpong Amsa-ngiam

The Nation

Pattaya