Tamarine, Tanasugarn bounce out of Olympics

Add as a preferred source on Google

Sydney: Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn and Paradorn Srichaphan crashed out of the Olympics tennis tournament on Thursday, unable to repeat their stunning upsets in Australia at the Hopman Cup in January.

Tanasugarn had no chance against Wimbledon and US Open champion Venus Williams, who racked up her 28th victory in a row in beating the Thai 6-2 6-3 in the second round.

Srichaphan put up a first set fight, but also fell in straight sets to French Open finalist and world number four, Sweden's Magnus Norman, who won 7-5 6-2.

"I guess I wasn't trying very hard," the second-seeded Williams said about the eight double faults in her 61-minute match against Tanusugarn, who is ranked 41st.

"I was serving too fast. For me, it's just about going out there and working on my game."

In January, Srichaphan and Tanasugarn became national heroes in Thailand -- a country known more for kickboxing than tennis - when they ousted Australians Mark Philippousis and Jelena Dokic in a major upset at the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia.

The duo led Thai television news broadcasts and were plastered on newspaper front pages as they made their way past Australia and Slovakia to the final, eventually falling to South Africa.



(c) Reuters Limited.