Danai snares Challenger crown in Aust

Danai, who won his previous Challenger title in Busan three years ago, relied on his baseline game to topple his rival, a wildcard entrant, in 78 minutes. The Thai was playing his first Challenger event since shoulder surgery in 2010.

“I got a lot of confidence after playing in the Australian Open. I played from the qualifying round, took on Gilles Simon and stretched him to five sets. I feel like my game is coming back,’’ said Danai who has collected a total of nine Challenger titles.

Playing in front of several Australian fans, Danai was two points away from losing the first set at 5-6 15-30, but put up a gutsy fight. The sixth-seeded Thai chased down all the heavy shots from his Australian opponent, who later lost patience and missed several shots, allowing Danai to extend the set to the tie-breaker.

Groth rallied from 1-3 to 4-4 before surging ahead at 5-4 after blasting a 209 kph ace. The highly-determined Danai kept hitting to the Australian’s backhand and it bore fruit as the latter buried two shots into the net and faced set point at 5-6. The set was over when Groth’s big forehand went out. He whacked the ball into the air in anger after missing the shot, earning him a warning from the chair umpire.

Danai carried the momentum into the following set and managed to break the inconsistent Groth in the second game for a 3-0 lead. He consolidated that break to 5-3 and completed the match with an unanswered volley.

“I will leave for Bangkok on Sunday and maybe stay home one night before going to Sri Lanka for the Davis Cup. We need to get used to the clay courts, which is the preferred surface of the home team,’’ said Danai.

In Kazan, Russia, Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana won their first doubles title this year by beating Alexander Bury of Belarus and Mateusz Kowalczyk of Poland 6-3 6-1 in the US$75,000 Kazan Kremlin Cup yesterday.

Meanwhile in Shenzhen, China, Thailand lost to Taiwan 2-0 in the Fed Cup Zone Asia/Oceania third place pay-off yesterday.