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Published on November 10, 2007

Hosts Thailand began their Asian Hopman Cup in style blanking China 3-0 in the pool A preliminary round at the LTAT National Tennis Centre yesterday.

Strutting her stuff for the first time in more than a week after sustaining an ankle injury, Tamarine Tanasugarn beat the error-prone Yenze Xie 6-4 6-4 in one hour and 13 minutes to give Thailand their first point before Danai Udomchoke added the second following a 51-minute 6-1 6-4 win over Wang Yu. Both of them then combined to complete the domination, beating the Chinese mixed-doubles team 6-2 6-4 in 47 minutes.

China were eliminated from the event as they had lost to South Korea on Thursday.

In the singles, Tamarine managed only one break in the fifth game to take the first set and fought back from 0-3 to take five straight games in the second set before wrapping it 6-4.

"She made a lot more errors than the last three times we played. I was a bit slow and didn't play well because it was my first match after the injury," said Tamarine, who admitted to stiffness in the right ankle after the match.

"I didn't feel any pain while playing but it resurfaced after the match. But I'm going to get some treatment and should be OK for Saturday," said Tamarine who is set to meet South Korea's Ye Ra-lee today.

"I've heard that she is a solid baseliner and spins the ball. I expect each point will need more than 10 shots and I'll have to play smart," Tamarine said.

Danai, after a quick first set, dropped to 1-4 in the second but regained his composure to take five straight games en route to stopping Wang.

"Basically I earned points playing defensively. But I went for too many shots and lost my serve in the second game of the second set. So I just switched to my original game plan and closed out the match," said Danai who plays South Korean Kyu Tae-im today. Going by seedings, Thailand should beat South Korea today and book a berth for Sunday's final.

"South Korean players are good and the court suits their spin game. Kyu must be very confident right now having reached the semi-final in Busan last week. It's going to be tough," Danai said.

He has never played Kyu. The Thai said his team should win both the singles rubbers as South Korea are dangerous in doubles.

In pool B, second-seed Taiwan sent Uzbekistan out of the competition with a 3-0 win. Hsieh Su-wei spent just an hour to dismiss Iroda Tulyaganova 6-0 6-2 in the women's singles match before Lu Yen-hsun, ranked 92nd in the world, beat Farrukh Dustov 6-3 6-4 in the men's category. Hsieh and Lu later then paired up to win the mixed doubles 7-5 6-4.

Uzbekistan lost to Japan on Thursday. Taiwan will play Japan today to decide the group winner.

The Nation

Nonthaburi