Thai Twins Give Young Rivals Tennis Lesson
Top seeds Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana gave a tennis lesson to young compatriots Natthasith Kunsuwan and Chaleechan Tanasugarn with a 6-2 6-1 win in the opening doubles actions in the US$50,000 Wind Energy Holding Bangkok Open Challenger 4 at Rama Garde
The two-time ATP Tour champions had no problem tackling the wildcard holders to score their first match win in a home Challenger this year.
“We came onto the court with a game plan and it worked pretty well. But we made a few mistakes we shouldn’t have made. But overall we are happy as this is our first match win in a home Challenger,” said Sanchai who lost all three first round matches in three challengers here since January.
The twin will take on Chen Ti of Taiwan and American John Paul Frutterro who beat Jirat Navasirisomboon and Phassawit Burapharitta 6-2 6-2. The Taiwanese-American pair is hot on their heels as they just lifted up a title together in the Hua Hin Challengers last week.
“It won’t be easy as they are on wining streaks. We know each other very well. The chance would be 50-50 per cent. But as we are the top seed, we are supposed to win this tournament,” said Sanchai who will have his season cut short this year in order to take care of his wife Thipvadee who will give birth to their baby girl due in November.
That means the twins will have to split for the first time in many years. Sonchat will have to find a new player to team up with for two weeks.
“My rankings will drop a lot as we won two Challengers in Japan last year during that time. I hope to have some good results before November,” said Sanchai. The other winning Thai pair was Kittipong Wachiramanowong and Wishaya Trongcharoemchaikul who upset Cheng-Peng Hsieh and Yi Chu-huan of Taiwan 7-5 6-3.
In the men’s singles second round, top seed Go Soeda of Japan managed a crucial break in the ninth game of the third set to beat Blake Mott of Australia 6-2 5-7 6-4 after two hours and 11 minutes.
“I didn’t play well in the second set as I didn’t move well. I almost lost but I tried to fight until the end. I have to improve my form in the next round to stay in contention ,” said Soeda who will play sixth seed Chen Ti of Taiwan on Friday. Chen extended his winning streaks in two weeks to 7-0 after the last week’s Hua Hin Men’s Futures 1 beat Vishnu Vardhan of India 6-3 6-1 in one hour and 17 minutes.
Elsewhere eighth seed Yuya Kibi of Japan beat Jirat Navasirisomboon 6-4 6-4 while 2014 champion Blaz Kavcic upset fourth seed Amir Weintraub of Israel 6-4 6-4.
