Top birthday present for Tamarine
[TENNIS] Birthday girl Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand gave herself a nice present by defeating Slovakia's Lenka Tvaroskova 6-2 6-2 to cruise into the second round of the US$50,000 (Bt1.9 million) Chinese Women's Circuit tournament in Beijing yesterday.
The top seed, who turned 29 yesterday, moved beyond the first round of a tournament for only the third time this year. Born on May 24, 1977, in Los Angeles, Tamarine returned to competition for the first time after taking a one month break to get over bout of food poisoning. Ranked No 146 in the world, Tamarine will play either Veronika Chvojkova of the Czech Republic or China's Chun-Mei Ji in the second round. Three other Thais followed Tamarine into the second round. Second-seed Suchanan Viratprasert ousted China's Song Shan-shan 6-4 6-3 and set up a second round match against countrywoman Monthinee Tangphong, a 6-4 6-1 winner over Antonia Matic of Germany. Napaporn Tongsalee, fresh from winning a doubles trophy in Ho Chi Minh last week, ended her losing streak by scoring a 5-7 6-3 6-2 victory over Sarah Raab of Germany. She had crashed out in seven first-round matches before this tournament. Two Thais did not survive the opening round - Nudnida Luangnam went down to Brazil's Larissa Carvalho 7-5 6-2, while qualifier Wilawan Chobtang lost to Slovak Katarina Kachlikova.
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