Tamarine Tanasugarn

Tamarine Tanasugarn (, , ; born 24 May 1977) is a Thai former tennis player. Born in Los Angeles, she turned professional in 1994, and has been in the top 20 in both singles and doubles.

Tanasugarn's career-high WTA ranking is No. 19, achieved on 13 May 2002, which is the highest ranking ever achieved by a Thai female player. She won four singles and eight doubles titles on the WTA Tour, and was briefly a doubles partner with Maria Sharapova, with whom she won two titles in 2003. Her career-high doubles ranking is 15, which she achieved on 13 September 2004. With Liezel Huber, she reached the 2004 US Open doubles quarterfinals, and at the 2011 Wimbledon Championships, she reached the women's doubles semifinal with Marina Erakovic. Her biggest individual success came in 2008, when she reached the singles quarterfinals at Wimbledon.

In her career, Tanasugarn has defeated former and current No. 1 players, including Amélie Mauresmo, Jennifer Capriati, Jelena Janković, Dinara Safina and Simona Halep. She has also beaten French Open champion Iva Majoli.

Tanasugarn has been regarded as a grass-court specialist; she won most matches on that surface including two WTA International titles. Tanasugarn at some point held the record of the most singles matches won on grass court among active players. As of 8 July 2013, she was second (with 84 wins) among active players, and 12th on the all-time list.

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

She received a law degree from Bangkok University in 2000.

She is also known to have played in the very first official match of the Arthur Ashe Stadium, at the 1997 US Open, in which she faced Chanda Rubin of the United States and won in two sets.

Playing style Tanasugarn produces her best game and strategy when she performs on grass. She is also known for her accurate flat ground strokes and a heavy slice serve for which are particularly effective on grass, Venus Williams has given an interview regarding Tanasugarn's game after their quarterfinal match in 2008 Wimbledon Championships: "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 was coached by her best friend, Andreea Ehritt-Vanc, until her retirement.

Career Juniors 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. At 17, she reached the Junior Grand Slam final at Wimbledon in 1995 with a win over Anna Kournikova in the semifinal, but then lost to Poland's Aleksandra Olsza, in straight sets.

1994–1999 Tanasugarn turned pro in 1994, but made her WTA Tour debut in the 1993 Pattaya Open, in which she lost to Australian Rennae Stubbs. The following year, she made the second round in the same tournament by beating world No. 44, Marianne Werdel Witmeyer, in the first round. In 1995, Tanasugarn started participating in Grand Slams, but did not make it beyond the qualifying rounds. In 1996, Tanasugarn played her first WTA final at the Pattaya Open, in which she lost to Ruxandra Dragomir. In 1997, she reached the third round of the Australian Open, at Wimbledon and the US Open, beating Chanda Rubin in the first round. She reached a semifinal at Hobart and ended the year with a No. 46 ranking.

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

Tanasugarn came back after her arm injury at the US Open, but lost to Anastasija Sevastova in the first round.

2010–2015 Tanasugarn started the year by playing at the Australian Open. She won her first major first-round match in five years, with a 6–1, 7–6 victory over Sesil Karatantcheva, but lost to Kim Clijsters in the second round.

At the Pattaya Open, Tanasugarn worked her way past Alla Kudryavtseva, second seed Sabine Lisicki, Anna Chakvetadze, and Sesil Karatantcheva. She finally lost to top seed and defending champion, Vera Zvonareva, in a dramatic final.

Tanasugarn and her New Zealand partner Marina Erakovic won the Pattaya Open doubles title, beating Anna Chakvetadze and Ksenia Pervak, giving Tanasugarn a successful defence of her homeland doubles title. Her next scheduled tournament was the Malaysian Open, where she lost to seventh seed Magdaléna Rybáriková in the first round. At the American fortnight tours, she entered the main draw in Indian Wells as a lucky loser and advanced into the second round, before losing to 19th 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 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 Birmingham Classic, surviving into the second round against Sania Mirza, after Mirza failed to serve out the match at 5–4 and 30–0. She lost to Yanina Wickmayer in the next round, in straight sets. She then competed at Rosmalen, but was defeated in the first round. Tanasugarn also suffered 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 en route, and Kimiko Date-Krumm in the final.

Despite losing in qualifying stages of 2011 Wimbledon with her partner Marina Erakovic, the doubles team received a lucky loser berth into the main draw and advanced to the semifinals with a 4–6, 7–6, 13–11 victory over third seeds Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber. It was the first time that Tanasugarn (as well as Erakovic) had advanced to the semifinals of a major event in any capacity.

In late March 2015, Tanasugarn defeated Sofia Shapatava in the first qualifying round of the Open GdF Suez; this would be the final singles win of her professional career. In late April, she lost to Kristýna Plíšková in the first round of the Kangaroo Cup; this would turn out to be the final singles match of her career.

2016–2020: retirement & short comeback in doubles She announced her retirement from professional tennis in June 2016.

Beginning in December 2018, Tanasugarn played doubles in small ITF tournaments around Thailand and nearby areas, winning the final of the $25k Hua Hin tournament in November 2019, partnering Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove. Since February 2020, she has been inactive again.

Performance timelines Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Fed Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.

Singles

Doubles

Significant finals Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 finals Doubles: 1 (runner-up)

WTA Tour finals Singles: 11 (4 titles, 7 runner-ups) Legend Premier M & Premier 5 PremierInternational (4–7)

Doubles: 16 (8 titles, 8 runner-ups) Legend Premier M & Premier 5 (0–1) Premier (0–2)International (8–5)

ITF Circuit finals Legend$100,000 tournaments$75,000 tournaments$50,000 tournaments$25,000 tournaments$10/15,000 tournaments

Singles: 24 (15 titles, 9 runner-ups)

Doubles: 17 (8 titles, 9 runner-ups)

Top 10 wins +#PlayerRankEventSurfaceRdScore19981. Iva MajoliNo. 6Australian OpenHard3R6–0, 6–2No. 4420012. Nathalie TauziatNo. 10Eastbourne International, UKGrass2R6–7(1), 7–6(6), 6–3No. 333. Amélie MauresmoNo. 6Wimbledon Championships, UKGrass3R6–4, 6–4No. 3120034. Daniela HantuchováNo. 9US OpenHard3R6–2, 6–4No. 3920085. Dinara SafinaNo. 9Rosmalen Open, NetherlandsGrassF7–5, 6–3No. 856. Jelena JankovićNo. 3Wimbledon Championships, UKGrass4R6–3, 6–2No. 6020097. Dinara SafinaNo. 1Rosmalen Open, NetherlandsGrassSF7–5, 7–5No. 47