Sanchai beats his brother for 1st ATP semis in 4 years
Sanchai Ratiwatana beat his own brother Sonchat as he teamed up with Australian John Millman to move past the elder twin and Aisam-Ul-Qureshi of Pakistan 6-2 6-4 in the US$720,410 ATP BB&T Atlanta Open on Thursday.
Sanchai who had to temporarily separate from Sonchat in order to be directly accepted into the maindraw of the event won the match in just 61 minutes for his first ATP semi-final since the 2013 Chennai Open.
“I’m happy to reach my first ATP semi-final for the first time in a long time. I didn’t have much game plan coming into the match as my brother, Aisam and me are quite familiar with each other and train together a lot.
“But Sonchat and I made a deal before the match that we would give our best out there as we needed to push each other to the limit and see who would go further. In the end one of us is still in the tournament,” said Sanchai who gave credits to his partner Millman for impressive form.
John Millman
“John was playing so well. He’s just lost in the singles (to Ryan Harrison) and might need to make amends in the doubles. He was so pumped up and gave his all in the match,” added Sanchai.
The Thai-Australian pair will wait the winners between Bob and Mike Bryan of the US and Matt Ried and John-Patrick Smith of Australia in the Saturday’s semi-finals.
“I personally want to play with the Bryan brothers though our side will be the underdogs if we have to play them. I will try to enjoy the match. At least the results this week will give us confidence when Sonchat and I team up again for a 250 ATP event in Mexico next week.”
