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Tuesday July 1, 4:01 PMGiant-slayer Tamarine the pride of ThailandBANGKOK (Reuters) - Tamarine Tanasugarn is the toast of Thailand after the veteran dumped second-seed Jelena Jankovic out of Wimbledon to become the first player from her country to reach the quarter-finals of a grand slam.Stories of Tamarine's dream run were splashed across the Kingdom's sports pages on Tuesday, alongside pictures of the world number 60's beaming face. "Super Tamarine" was the headline in the Thai-language Thai Post, while the Siam Sports daily led with "Hot Tammy beats Serb". The 31-year-old, who is the oldest player left in the draw, tossed a petulant Jankovic onto the scrapheap with a 6-3 6-2 win at the All England Club on Monday to reach the last eight of a grand slam for the first time in her lengthy career. Tamarine's ecstatic response was: "wow, wow, wow". Jankovic, who was carrying an injury, was the latest big name to fall by the wayside at Wimbledon after top seed Ana Ivanovic, third seed Maria Sharapova and fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova had their hopes dashed by lower-ranked opponents. The match was not broadcast in Thailand but repeat footage of Tamarine falling to her knees in tears was shown on news shows throughout the morning. The Daily Xpress newspaper carried the headline "Junkovic" and mocked the Serb for making a joke about her unheralded opponent before the match. When told she was playing a "Thai girl" Jankovic reportedly claimed to have misheard, saying "Tiger? Tiger who? Tiger Woods?" Tamarine lives in Bangkok but was born and raised as a child in Los Angeles, where her Thai parents ran a restaurant. Her Wimbledon exploits have put the on-court achievements of former world number nine and huge local celebrity Paradorn Srichapan into the shade. Tamarine will play defending champion Venus Williams in Tuesday's quarter-finals, whom she acknowledged had "kicked my butt" in previous matches. "There is no pressure at all for me," she told reporters. "I will just go out there and have fun and do my best." (Reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by John O'Brien) |
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