Tammy the lone Thai survivor

Pattaya - Resilient Tamarine Tanasugarn is the only Thai to emerge unscathed in the battle that ensued in the US$220,000 PTT Pattaya Open at the Dusit Thani Hotel yesterday.

Playing some terrific tennis, the veteran wrapped up her match in just 71 minutes. With three young and inexperienced compatriots walking into the sunset, the 32-year-old lived up to the expectations with some solid groundstrokes to outclass Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1 6-2 in the singles first round.

"The score looked easy but there were many deuces. I was lucky that Alla missed those crucial points,'' said a humble Tamarine, who has a solid 5-1 singles record this season, losing her only match to Kim Clijsters in the Australian Open second round.

She said the solid performance was inspired by the growing desire to win after being out of action for four months last year due to an elbow injury. Tamarine faces a daunting task in the second round today when she faces second-seeded and world No 25 Sabine Lisicki of Germany.

"I never played her but I know she serves big and hits big. I have no worry going into that match as I have nothing to lose."

Youngster Varatchaya Wongteanchai briefly tested Taiwanese rising star Kai-chen Chang, ranked 94th in the world, but came up short to lose the match 4-6 6-3 6-3 after one hour and 53 minutes. Things could have gone the other way if the 20-year-old Thai had capitalised on her triple break point at 3-3 and 0-40 in the second set.

"I was nervous and pressured myself too much. It was my first singles match in two months and there is a lot of room to work on,'' said Varatchaya, who represented Thailand in the SEA Games last December and Fed Cup last week, all in doubles matches.

Local No 2 Suchanun Viratprasert squandered a 5-3 lead in the second set before going down to Kazakh Sisil Karatencheva 6-1 7-5. She also lost to the same opponent last week in Kuala Lumpur.

Qualifier Nudnida Luangnam, a day after being the first Thai in three years to enter the main draw through qualification, lost to Russian Ekaterina Bychkova 7-6 (7-4) 1-6 6-7 (3-7) after two hours and 45 minutes.

The Thai had only herself to blame as she failed to keep the ball in play in the tie-break when Bychkova could barely move due to cramps.

Top seed and world No 14 Vera Zvonareva of Russia opened her title defence in a convincing manner, beating countrywoman Ksenia Pervak 6-3 6-2 in one hour and 26 minutes.

"It's great for me to come back here as a defending champion. I was inconsistent but it was something expected for your first match of the tournament. Then I came up with good serves and some good shots when I needed," said the 25-year-old Zvonareva, who beat

Sania Mirza in the final last year.

Elsewhere, fourth-seeded Yaraslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, who won the doubles with Tamarine last year, easily moved past Ayumi Morita of Japan 6-2 6-4.

Eighth-seeded Julia Goerges of Germany downed Anna Gerasimou of Greece 6-4 6-4 and Alberta Brianta of Italy was taken to three sets by Sacha Jones of New Zealand 6-4 4-6 6-1.