Thailand is presently one of the leading regional nations in tennis. Their Paradorn Srichaphan, who usually conceals the direction of his shots, is globally ranked No. 10 and in the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open at Melbourne, he advanced with boundless energy upto the pre-quarter-final stage where he was brought down by the audacity and ardour of the popular Andre Agassi. This was the latter's last appearance Down Under. On their own courts in Muang Thong Thani stadium of Bangkok they were supposed to be odds-on favourites and at their best with the crowd support spurring the Thais to fine efforts.
However, whatever may be the ranking of the Thai hero, Paradorn and performances overseas his squad should not have been taken invincible for their quartet was dumped on the Pakistani grass surface in Lahore six years ago. Much water has flowed down the rivers of Asia and Thailand has grown in stature in the last six years. They prepare rigorously under the able guidance of Chanachai Srichaphan, Paradorn's father.
In fact the Thais had trained hard for the Asia-Oceania Group I match despite knowing that Pakistan is not a difficult proposition, with a young and inexperienced squad.
Their internationally known player, Aisamul Haq, had deserted the country for unimportant competitions in Europe and America, though he has hardly made a mark abroad for he has not qualified to feature in the four Grand Slams.
Did he play in the Australian Open? What was his contribution against South Korea in last year's Davis Cup, when Pakistan created a stir by downing the North Asian country? For nothing he was demanding high fees for appearing in the Davis Cup with his country's selectees. But then these are the days of greed and service to the country is flung to the winds.
Pakistan were no midgets with young campaigners to throw down the gauntlet to their rivals on an alien hard surface, which should have suited the Pakistani challengers.
They have been playing competitions on the commented courts of the Karachi Gymkhana and Karachi Club. However, the modern serve-and-volley game with repeated aces of the Thais in the two opening singles did not allow the Pakistanis to settle down. Nomi Qamar, a base-liner to be true, could not size up his opponent's repertoire of strokes of the Asian No. 1, Paradorn Srichaphan, and was thrown out in straight sets 6-2, 6-1 and 6-0.
The Karachi youngster of the Avari Towers will have to develop variety in his shotplay for international and regional contests.
Aqeel Khan, country's No. 1, was thought before the match, to put up a good fight against Thai No. 2, Danai Undomchoke, but the former committed so many unforced errors that Danai had always a jump over Aqeel and ran away a winner comfortably.
The initial singles showed the trend of the outcome for after a 2-0 deficit the tails of the Thais were up and the doubles was theirs for the taking.
Twins Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana, had perfect co-ordination and understanding to wrap up the doubles to give the Thais a 3-0 lead and the right to meet Uzbekistan in the second round.
The reverse singles were just a formality and the Thais rested their star player, Paradorn, but regretfully both the singles went in favour of the hosts and in straight sets. The Pakistanis were whitewashed.
No doubt it was a poor show but it was the mistake of the federation not to send the national players to foreign contests to develop the psychology of their racket-wielders. Besides, the number of home tournaments is considerably less compared to Thailand and India.
Taiwan lost to Uzbekistan and will be measuring strength with Pakistan in the playoff on their own hard courts. Pakistan had got the better of them some years ago in the Davis Cup. Hopefully they may be able to avoid a relegation to Group II of the Asia-Oceanic Davis Cup.
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