Tamarine Tanasugarn

Tamarine Tanasugarn

Country (sports)	Thailand
Residence	Bangkok, Thailand
Born	(1977-05-24) 24 May 1977 Los Angeles, United States
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Turned pro	1994
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	US$ 2,950,148
Singles
Career record	471–366
Career titles	4 WTA, 13 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 19 (13 May 2002)
Current ranking	No. 81 (4 July 2011)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	4R (1998)
French Open	3R (2002)
Wimbledon	QF (2008)
US Open	4R (2003)
Olympic Games	2R (2000)
Doubles
Career record	221–205
Career titles	7 WTA, 7 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 15 (13 September 2004)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	3R (2000)
French Open	2R (2002, 2004, 2007)
Wimbledon	SF (2011)
US Open	QF (2004)
Olympic Games	QF (1996, 2000)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Wimbledon	2R (2009)
Last updated on: 10 January 2011.

Tamarine Tanasugarn

Medal record
Women's Tennis
Asian Games
	2002 Busan	Singles
	1998 Bangkok	Singles

Tanasugarn on the right in this photo, with her doubles partner Su-Wei Hsieh.

Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thai: แทมมารีน ธนสุกาญจน์, [tʰɛːmmāːrīːn tʰánásùkāːn]; born 24 May 1977) is a professional Thai tennis player. She was born in Los Angeles, United States, and turned professional in 1994. She has been in the top twenty in both singles and doubles.

Tanasugarn's highest Women's Tennis Association (WTA) world ranking has been 19, achieved on 13 May 2002, which is the highest ranking ever achieved for a Thai female player. She has won four singles titles and five doubles titles. She was briefly a doubles partner with Maria Sharapova with whom she won two titles in 2003. Her highest world doubles ranking was 15 which she achieved on 13 September 2004. With Liezel Huber she reached the 2004 US Open doubles quarter-finals, and in 2011 Wimbledon Championships, she reached women's doubles semifinal with Marina Erakovic. Her biggest success so far came in 2008 when she reached quarterfinals in Wimbledon Championships.

In her career Tanasugarn has defeated former and current number one players including Amélie Mauresmo, Jennifer Capriati, Jelena Janković, and Dinara Safina. She has also beaten Australian Open and French Open champion Mary Pierce.

Tanasugarn is also widely regarded as a grass court specialist, having made the fourth round at Wimbledon for six times (1998–2002 and 2004), eventually succeeding in reaching the quarter-finals in 2008. She has reached three grass court WTA finals in the Ordina Open in 2008 and 2009, and at Birmingham in 2000. Five out of her seven victories over top ten players also came on grass, including a win over Dinara Safina at the Ordina Open in 2009 which was Tanasugarn's first career win over a reigning world No.1.

Tanasugarn is also a regular competitor for the Thailand Fed Cup team helping the team join the World Group II in 2005 and 2006 after beating Australia and Croatia in their play-off matches.

Playing style

Tanasugarn produces her best game and strategy when she performs on grass. Tanasugarn is also known for her accurate flat ground strokes and a heavy slice serve for which are particularly effective on grass, Venus Williams gave an interview regarding Tanasugarn's game "I think her game is really suited for the grass. Her serve is a slice that turns into you and it stays low. Her shots are really, really low to the ground. A lot of time I think I was battling just to stay down on the shots, and I felt good when I got one up in my strike zone". Kim Clijsters has once described Tanasugarn as a "Tricky Player". Tanasugarn's weakness has always been her serve.

Tanasugarn is currently coached by her best friend Andreea Ehritt-Vanc.

Career

Junior

During her junior career, her expenses were provided by her father, Virachai Tanasugarn, a lawyer who was once a Thai basketball player and who inspired Tanasugarn to become a professional tennis player. Aged 17 Tanasugarn reached her junior grand slam final at Wimbledon in 1995 with a win over Anna Kournikova in the semifinal but lost to Poland's Aleksandra Olsza 7–5, 7–6. With this achievement she built her confidence and became both a rising star and a grass court specialist.

1994–1999

Tanasugarn turned pro in 1994 and had made her WTA debut in 1993 Pattaya Women's Open in which she lost to Australian Rennae Stubbs, 6–4, 7–6(7–3). In the following year she got through the second round by beating world number 44, Marianne Werdel Witmeyer in the first round 1–6, 7–5, 7–5. In 1995, Tanasugarn started participating in Grand Slams but lost all four of them in the qualifying rounds. In 1996 Tanasugarn caught media attention by reaching the final at Pattaya Women's Open, in which she lost to Ruxandra Dragomir, 7–6(7–4), 6–4. In 1997 she reached the third round in the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open beating Chanda Rubin in the first round, a semifinal at Hobart and ended the year with number 46 ranking.

1998 was a breakthrough year for Tanasugarn when she reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in the Australian Open, defeating the reigning French Open Champion Iva Majoli, 6–0, 6–2. Tanasugarn also made her second fourth round at Wimbledon where she eventually lost to Martina Hingis. In 1999 she reached the fourth round at Wimbledon for a second time and ended the year ranked at number 72.

2000–2004

Tanasugarn partnered with Paradorn Srichaphan at the Hopman Cup in 2000. Tanasugarn beat Jelena Dokić of Australia, Barbara Schett of Austria, Ai Sugiyama of Japan and Henrieta Nagyová of Slovakia. However, Tanasugarn lost in thewomen's singles final to Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 3–6, 6–4, 6–4, having led 6–3, 3–0. In the men's singles final Paradorn Srichaphan lost to Wayne Ferreira 7–6(14–12), 6–3. This result has made them the first Asian team to reach the finals at the Hopman Cup. Tanasugarn reached her second WTA final at Birmingham with a win over Julie Halard-Decugis but lost to Lisa Raymond. She also lost in the fourth round at Wimbledon to Serena Williams. Tanasugarn reached three semifinals at the Japan Open Tennis Championships, Kuala Lampur and Shanghai. She represented Thailand in the 2000 Summer Olympics but was defeated by Venus Williams. Her year-end ranking was number 29, her first time in the top 30.

In 2001 Tanasugarn had second and third top ten wins against Nathalie Tauziat in Eastbourne and Amélie Mauresmo in Wimbledon and reached her third career final at Japan Open Tennis Championships losing to Monica Seles, 6–3, 6–2. At the end of the season Tanasugarn was ranked in the top 30.

In 2002 Tanasugarn succeeded in achieving her best ranking by reaching the fourth and fifth major finals at Canberra losing to Isarael's Anna Smashnova, and at Doha losing to Monica Seles, and the quarterfinals at tier I of the Toray Pan Pacific Open. On 13 May Tanasugarn was ranked number 19 in the world, her best career ranking to date. Tanasugarn ended the year ranked number 28.

In 2003 Tanasugarn won her first tour major in Hyderabad where she beat Maria Kirilenko in the quarterfinals, the Italian Flavia Pennetta in the semifinal and Iroda Tulyaganova from Uzbekistan in the final, 6–4, 6–4. Tanasugarn reached the second tier I quarterfinal in the Toray Pan Pacific Open beating Silvia Farina Elia but lost to Lindsay Davenport in two sets. Tanasugarn suffered her earliest exit in Wimbledon since she turned pro, losing to Akiko Morigami in the first round. Tanasugarn reached the fourth round in US Open for the first time, beating Rita Grande, Patty Schnyder and number 9 seed, Daniela Hantuchová. She lost to Amélie Mauresmo in two sets in the following round. Tanasugarn was ranked 34 at the end of the year.

In 2004 Tanasugarn reached her sixth fourth round at Wimbledon, although she lost to the Ai Sugiyama in two sets. Tanasugarn was also the semifinalist in the Japan Open Tennis Championships losing to Maria Sharapova.

2005–2007

Tanasugarn had to deal with multiple injuries which affected most of her career in 2005, her ranking dropped out of the top 100 and Tanasugarn chose to play in Challenger level tournaments to collect the points.

In 2006 she once mentioned retiring from tennis but, after she qualified to play in the main draw of Wimbledon and reached the third round, Tanasugarn decided to give it another shot. Tanasugarn reached her home country tournament final again in the PTT Bangkok Open, facing Vania King, and was two games away from taking the title. Leading in the final set 4–2, King fought back to win the match. Despite losing the match Tanasugarn regained some confidence to get back to the tour. She finished that year ranked 75th.

Unfortunately Tanasugarn still struggled with injuries in 2007 and had to play in many challenges, she ended the season ranked 124th.

2008

Tanasugarn made a successful comeback in 2008. She decided to skip the clay court seasons due to her difficulty playing games on that surface and chose to play in hard court challenges which she had said that "the ball bouncing is familiar to grass surface". Tanasugarn won the challenger title at Gifu, defeating the former world number four Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan.

In the grass court season Tanasugarn beat the Austrian seed, Tamira Paszek, in Birmingham but lost to Bethanie Mattek in the fourth round. A week later Tanasugarn stunned many tennis fans at the Ordina Open when, ranked number 85, she beat Kateryna Bondarenko, Ashley Harkleroad, Michaëlla Krajicek and Alona Bondarenko to reach her eighth major final, beating the French Open runner-up Dinara Safina in two sets. She reached her seventh fourth round in Wimbledon, beating Vera Zvonareva en route and surprised the world number three, Jelena Janković, with a two set defeat in the fourth round. Despite making her grand-slam quarterfinal debut she lost to the eventual champion Venus Williams, 6–4,6–3. Tanasugarn became the first Thai player to make a grand slam quarterfinal and has said that reaching the quarterfinal in Wimbledon is her most accomplished dream so far. Tanasugarn ended the 2008 tournament ranked number 35, her best ranking in four years.

2009

Yaroslava Shvedova and Tamarine Tanasugarn in 2009 Pattaya Women's Open double final match

Tanasugarn was seeded 32 in Australian Open but lost early to María José Martínez Sánchez 5–7, 3–6. She played Fed Cup for Thailand losing to Samantha Stosur, 6–4, 5–7, 0–6, leaving Thailand in third place in the Asia/Oceania group, after Australia and New Zealand. Tanasugarn lost to Sania Mirza in straight sets in the quarterfinal of the Pattaya Women's Open. In the doubles she partnered Yaroslava Shvedova and the team, seeded number two, got into the final and won the match beating Yuliya Beygelzimer and Vitalia Diatchenko 6–3, 6–2.

At the 2009 French Open at Roland Garros Tanasugarn defeated Camille Pin 6–3, 5–7, 7–5 in the first round. In the second round, she was beaten by the 8th seed, and defending champion, Ana Ivanović 1–6, 2–6.

Tamarine Tanasugarn serving to Dinara Safina in their semifinal match at the Ordina Open

Tanasugarn started playing on grass courts at the 2009 AEGON Classic. In the first round she defeated Julie Coin in straight sets 7–6(1), 6–1. In the second round Tanasugarn spent 2 hours 23 minutes on court evenutually losing to home favourite Naomi Cavaday in three sets 6–7(5), 6–2, 4–6. In 's-Hertogenbosch, as defending champion, Tanasugarn defeated Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová and 7th seeded Iveta Benešová to reach the quarterfinals. There, she recovered from a set down to defeat 3rd seeded Flavia Pennetta 2–6, 6–3, 6–3. In the semifinals, Tanasugarn defeated Dinara Safina in straight sets 7–5, 7–5. It was Tanasugarn's first career win over a reigning world No.1. In the final she beat Yanina Wickmayer 6–3, 7–5, to successfully defend her title.

At the Wimbledon Championships Tanasugarn had an arm injury and eventually lost early to Arantxa Parra Santonja in first round 4–6, 4–6. Tanasugarn played the mixed doubles event for the first time by partnering with Rogier Wassen, but she scratched in the second round because of her injury.

Tanasugarn came back after her arm injury at the 2009 US Open but lost to Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia in the first round 3–6, 5–7.

2010

Tanasugarn started the year by playing at the Australian Open. She won her first first-round match in five years with a 6–1, 7–6 victory over a Sesil Karatantcheva, but lost to Kim Clijsters in the second round 3–6, 3–6. At the PTT Pattaya Open, Tanasugarn worked her way past Alla Kudryavtseva 6–1, 6–1, the number two seed Sabine Lisicki 6–3, 3–6, 7–5, Anna Chakvetadze 6–1, 6–4, and Sesil Karatantcheva 6–2, 6–0. She finally lost to top seed, and defending champion, Vera Zvonareva in a dramatic final 4–6, 4–6.

Tanasugarn and her New Zealand partner Marina Erakovic won the PTT Pattaya Open doubles title beating Anna Chakvetadze and Ksenia Pervak 7–5, 6–1, giving Tanasugarn a successful defence of her homeland double title. Tanasugarn's next scheduled tournament was the Malaysian Open where she lost to seventh seed Magdaléna Rybáriková in the first round 5–7, 3–6. At the American fortnight tours she entered a main draw in Indian Wells as a lucky loser and advanced into the second round before losing to nineteenth seed Aravane Rezaï. In Miami she lost to Pauline Parmentier in the final qualifying round. She also played several ITF tournaments in April, reaching the finals at the $100,000+H in Johannesburg.

After the middle of April Tanasugarn did not play any tournaments and withdrew in Strasbourg due to an elbow injury. At Roland Garros she lost to Daniela Hantuchová in the first round. Tanasugarn began playing her favourite surface, grass, at the Aegon Classic in Birmingham, surviving into the second round against Sania Mirza 4–6, 7–5, 6–1 after Mirza failed to serve out the match at 5–4 and 30–0. She lost to Yanina Wickmayer in the next round 4–6, 4–6. Tanasugarn then competed at the Unicef Open in 's-Hertogenbosch but was defeated in the first round. Tanasugarn suffered from a first round loss at Wimbledon and missed the US Open due to injuries. She won her fourth WTA title at Osaka defeating Marion Bartoli and Kimiko Date Krumm in the WTA final.

2011

Despite losing in qualifying stages of Wimbledon with her partner Marina Erakovic, the doubles team received a lucky loser birth into the main draw, and have advanced to the semi-finals with a 4–6, 7–6(1), 13–11 victory over the number three seeds Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber. It is the first time that Tanasugarn (as well as Erakovic) has advanced to the semi-finals of a Grand Slam event in any capacity.

WTA Tour finals

Singles: 11 (4–7)

Wins (4)

Winner – Legend (pre/post 2010)
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
WTA Tour Championships (0–0)
Tier I / Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (0–0)
Tier II / Premier (0–0)
Tier III, IV & V / International (4–7)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1.	18 November 1996	Pattaya City	Hard	Ruxandra Dragomir	7–6, 6–4
Runner-up	2.	12 June 2000	Birmingham	Grass	Lisa Raymond	6–2, 6–7 (7), 6–4
Runner-up	3.	1 October 2001	Tokyo	Hard	Monica Seles	6–3, 6–2
Runner-up	4.	7 January 2002	Canberra	Hard	Anna Smashnova	7–5, 7–6(2)
Runner-up	5.	11 February 2002	Doha	Hard	Monica Seles	7–6(6), 6–3
Winner	1.	9 February 2003	Hyderabad	Hard	Iroda Tulyaganova	6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	6.	9 October 2006	Bangkok	Hard	Vania King	2–6, 6–4, 6–4
Winner	2.	21 June 2008	's-Hertogenbosch	Grass	Dinara Safina	7–5, 6–3
Winner	3.	20 June 2009	's-Hertogenbosch	Grass	Yanina Wickmayer	6–3, 7–5
Runner-up	7.	14 February 2010	Pattaya City	Hard	Vera Zvonareva	6–4, 6–4
Winner	4.	17 October 2010	Osaka	Hard	Kimiko Date Krumm	7–5, 6–7(4), 6–1

Doubles: 13 (7–6)

Wins (7)

Winner – Legend (pre/post 2010)
Grand Slam tournaments (0)
WTA Tour Championships (0)
Tier I / Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (0)
Tier II / Premier (0)
Tier III, IV & V / International (7)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	11 January 1998	Auckland	Hard	Nana Miyagi	Julie Halard-Decugis Janette Husárová	6–4, 7–5
2.	22 October 2000	Shanghai	Hard	Lilia Osterloh	Rita Grande Meghann Shaughnessy	7–5, 6–1
3.	24 September 2001	Indonesia	Hard	Evie Dominikovic	Janet Lee Wynne Prakusya	7–6(1), 6–4
4.	5 October 2003	Japan	Hard	Maria Sharapova	Ansley Cargill Ashley Harkleroad	7–6(1), 6–0
5.	26 October 2003	Luxembourg City	Hard (i)	Maria Sharapova	Elena Tatarkova Marlene Weingärtner	6–1, 6–4
6.	15 February 2009	Pattaya City	Hard	Yaroslava Shvedova	Yulia Beygelzimer Vitalia Diatchenko	6–3, 6–2
7.	14 February 2010	Pattaya City	Hard	Marina Erakovic	Anna Chakvetadze Ksenia Pervak	7–5, 6–1

Runner-ups (6)

Winner – Legend (pre/post 2010)
Grand Slam tournaments (0)
WTA Tour Championships (0)
Tier I / Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (1)
Tier II / Premier (2)
Tier III, IV & V / International (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	16 August 1998	Los Angeles	Hard	Elena Tatarkova	Martina Hingis Natasha Zvereva	6–4, 6–2
2.	27 February 2000	Oklahoma	Hard	Elena Tatarkova	Kimberly Po-Messerli Corina Morariu	6–4, 4–6, 6–2
3.	14 October 2001	Shanghai	Hard	Evie Dominikovic	Lenka Němečková Liezel Huber	6–0, 7–5
4.	21 September 2003	Shanghai	Hard	Ai Sugiyama	Émilie Loit Nicole Pratt	6–3, 6–3
5.	8 August 2004	Montreal	Hard	Liezel Huber	Ai Sugiyama Shinobu Asagoe	6–0, 6–3
6.	2 November 2008	Quebec City	Hard (i)	Jill Craybas	Anna-Lena Grönefeld Vania King	7–6(3), 6–4

Singles performance timeline

NM5				means an event that is neither a Premier Mandatory nor a Premier 5 tournament.

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or when the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the Wimbledon Championships in London, Great Britain, which ended 5 July 2009.

Tournament	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	Career SR	Career Win-Loss
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open	A	LQ1	LQ2	3R	4R	1R	3R	3R	3R	3R	1R	2R	1R5	1R	1R5	1R	2R	0 / 14	15–14
French Open	A	LQ2	A	2R	1R	1R	2R	1R	3R	1R	1R	1R	A	2R	1R	2R	1R	0 / 13	6–13
Wimbledon	A	LQ2	A	3R	4R	4R	4R	4R	4R	1R	4R	2R	3R1	1R	QF	1R	1R	0 / 14	27–14
US Open	A	LQ2	A	3R	1R	2R	3R	1R	2R	4R	1R	1R	LQ1	1R	1R	1R	A	0 / 12	9–12
SR	0 / 0	0 / 4	0 / 1	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 2	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 3	0 / 50	N/A
Win-Loss	0–0	0–4	0–2	7–4	6–4	4–4	8–4	5–4	8–4	5–4	3–4	2–4	2–2	1–4	4–4	1–1	1–3	44–50
Year-End Championship
WTA Tour Championships	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 0	0–0
Olympic Games
Summer Olympics	Not Held		A	Not Held			2R	Not Held			1R	Not Held			1R	Not Held		0 / 3	1–3
WTA Premier Mandatory Tournaments
Indian Wells	A	A	A	1R	2R	1R	1R	3R	3R	3R	1R	1R	LQ2	2R	A	1R	2R	0 / 12	9–12
Key Biscayne	A	3R3	A	2R	3R	1R	2R	4R	3R	3R	2R	1R	A	1R6	1R6	2R	A	0 / 13	15–13
Madrid	Not Held															1R	A	0 / 1	0–1
Beijing	Not Held										Not Tier I					A	A	0 / 0	0–0
WTA Premier 5 Tournaments
Dubai	Not Tier I															A	A	0 / 0	0–0
Rome	A	A	A	1R	A	A	A	A	1R	A	A	A	A	LQ1	A	A	A	0 / 3	0–2
Cincinnati	Not Held										Not Tier I					A	A	0 / 0	0–0
Montreal / Toronto	A	A	A	2R	1R	A	1R	2R	2R	1R	2R	A	A	A	2R	A	A	0 / 8	5–8
Tokyo	A	A	A	2R	1R	A	1R	A	QF	QF	1R	A	LQ2	LQ2	LQ1	A	A	0 / 8	5–6
Former WTA Tier I Tournaments (currently neither Premier Mandatory nor Premier 5 events)
Charleston	A	A	A	1R	1R	A	A	A	A	1R	1R	A	A	1R	A		NM5	0 / 5	0–5
Moscow	Not Held	Not Tier I	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A			0 / 0	0–0
Doha	Not Held							Not Tier I							3R4	Not Held	0 / 1	2–1
Berlin	A	A	A	1R	2R	A	A	A	2R	A	A	A	A	A	A			0 / 3	2–3
San Diego	Not Tier I										1R4	A	A	2R	A		0 / 2	1–2
Zürich	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A			0 / 0	0–0
Philadelphia	A	A	Not Tier I										Not Held				0 / 0	0–0
Career Statistics
Tournaments played	12	12	16	26	23	21	27	22	26	24	26	24	27	24	22	12	5	N/A	349
Finals reached	0	0	7	1	0	3	2	1	2	1	0	1	2	1	3	0	N/A	24
Tournaments Won	0	0	3	1	0	2	1	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	2	0	1	N/A	13
Year End Ranking	294	209	79	46	37	72	29	29	28	34	66	132	75	124	35	114	62	N/A	N/A

• ¹ Lost in the second round of the qualifying tournament.
• ² Lost in the first round of the qualifying tournament.
• ³ Won two and lost one qualifying match to reach the main draw before losing in the third round.
• ⁴ Won two qualifying matches to reach the main draw.
• ⁵ Won three qualifying matches to reach the main draw.
• ⁶ Won one and lost one qualifying match to reach the main draw before losing in the first round.
• ⁷ Her win-loss record includes all matches listed on the WTA website, including Women's Pro Circuit and Fed Cup matches.
• ⁸ Her qualifying matches not include with her win-loss record.

External links

• Tamarine Tanasugarn at the Women's Tennis Association
• Tamarine Tanasugarn at the Billie Jean King Cup