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ADVANTAGE ASIA
(Tennis Player Marc Lim Tracks Australian Open)
Edited by Lynn Koh
The Australian Open now going on in Melbourne is popular among tennis fans all over the world. In Asia,the interest has gone up in recent years in part because of the rise of players from this region, especially in the women's game. This year, a little-known Thai qualifier Danai Udomchoke has done the Asian guys proud - as Singapore's national tennis player MARC LIM notes.
Happy Man
Thai qualifier Danai Udomchoke went into this year's Australian Open a happy man. Ranked No.121 in the world, he was making his debut at Melbourne Park after having failed to qualify on six previous occasions.
By the end of his opening match, against No.4 seed David Nalbandian of Argentna, he was an even happier man.
He had given the stylish Nalbandian, a quarter-finalist at Melbourne Park for the last three years, a real fight. At Rod Laver Arena, the Thai played like there was no tomorrow.
Though his more experienced opponent eventually prevailed 6-2 6-2 1-6 7-6 (4/7) 6-1 after more than two hours of tennis, Udomchoke had made a statement for his country - and for Asia.
Superb Performance
Of course, to be fair, I feel that Nalbandian was far from his best during the match. He had missed a recent tournament at Kooyong and so probably was still trying to regain his full match fitness.
His encounter with the Thai was only his first match of the tournament and he was yet to reach his peak. The top players are known to get better as the tournament progresses. And he wasn't the only one stretched. Many of the top seeds were also stretched to the limit in their early matches.
Having said this, we must not take anything away from Udomchoke who put up a superb performance.He played as if he had nothing to lose and rightly deserved the praise he received after his match.
Overall, Asian players have made great strides in a sport long dominated by the Americans and Europeans. Let's hope this trend continues and may more Asian guys rise to the occasion the way their female counterparts have.
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