The country's No-1 player, who has been on the sidelines since March due to tendinitis in his right wrist, returned home yesterday with fiancee Natalie Glebova after two weeks of treatment in Germany.

 "He is getting better but still needs more time to recover. We haven't set a particular date for his return to the tour but it will be before the Thailand Open," said Chanachai.

 Paradorn went to Germany expecting to be operated on, but was relieved when the injury was diagnosed as less severe than earlier thought. Over the past fortnight, he received acupuncture treatment in the morning and rehabilitation in the afternoon.

 "He will have further treatment at Samitivej Hospital and should be able to pick up a racquet in the next few weeks," Chanachai added.

Paradorn has lifted five ATP titles, but none at home. He made it to the semi-finals of the Thailand Open at the Impact Arena in 2005 and 2006, and says that winning his home title is more important than becoming a Grand Slam champion.

 Paradorn has played only six matches this year, losing five of them. He last appeared on the tour in the Masters Series in Florida, where he was forced to retire during a match against Luis Horna of Peru in the first round. He has already withdrawn from Wimbledon, where he reached the fourth round in 2003.

Roddick put to test

nIn London, Andy Roddick survived a rigorous examination from British wild card Alex Bogdanovic to scrape into the quarter-finals at Queen's yesterday.

Roddick, the second seed, was pushed to the limit as Bogdanovic played well above his 117th place in the ATP rankings, but the American did just enough to win 4-6 7-6 (7/5) 6-4.

Next up for former Wimbledon finalist Roddick is a clash with rising Croatian star Marin Cilic, who won the battle of the giant-killers as he beat French qualifier Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 4-6 6-3 6-2. Chilean No 3 seed Fernando Gonzalez beat Robby Ginepri 6-2 7-5.