Clay court flavour of the season but where are the Thais?

The year’s second major became just a stop in Paris for Thais to chill out, shop and catch up with old friends rather than to play on into the second week at Roland Garros.

 As the qualifying rounds kicked off in the middle of the week, both Danai Udomchoke and Noppawan Lertcheewakarn vanished quickly in the dust, winning just five games between them. Danai suffered his most humiliating result in Paris, losing to Argentina’s Martin Alund 6-1 6-0 while Noppawan also had no chance in the 6-0 6-4 defeat to Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele. This is unbelievable from the country’s two best players.

Well, there is still Tamarine Tanasugarn in the Grand Slam. But let’s accept the fact that the local veteran would be no better than her two compatriots as far as clay is concerned. While Danai and Noppawan never won a match on the clay at the major, Tamarine once reached the third round in 2002. She was least successful in the French Open compared to other majors.

We are all well aware that Thai tennis players are most vulnerable on clay among all tennis surfaces. That is understandable because Thais play a lot on cement surfaces because grass courts in the country are rare and the only one clay court complex, which was built a few years ago with much fanfare, costs a hand and a leg to play on it.

It is outrageous that the tennis authority, the Lawn Tennis Association of Thailand (LTAT), here has taken matters as simple as courts for granted for years and years. One can see the consequences. Thai players are scared of the surface and make sure it’s not on their itinerary.

But that’s quite unwise. For there are so many clay court events on the ATP and WTA Tours. A total of 23 ATP tournaments take place on clay from January to July this year while 16 on the WTA between February to July. So, it doesn’t look right if the LTAT’s goal is still to produce tennis players on the pro tour but its players choose to stay away from the red dirt.

Instead of bringing big events or big names to Thailand, the tennis body should save money to lay clay courts, five at least, to give locals a chance to develop their ability. Ten years into his reign as the LTAT boss, Suwat Liptapanlop, is yet to make his dream a reality. Perhaps he forgot the promise he made when he first took office.

In the meantime, the LTAT should request help from their counterparts in Europe. For example Spain, the powerhouse, which produces clay-court players like an auto assembly plant. Our coaches need to attend training programmes to learn techniques about playing on clay, which then can be transmitted to the young ones later.

Furthermore, a dozen gifted players should be sent to train on clay in Europe, let’s say three months. They would certainly gain much experience playing and competing on it.

But what’s more important is that things like this need consistency, strong will and time. As far as I know, there had been attempts by the LTAT to produce clay-court players but there was no determination and continuity in action. These things require many years to accomplish, so there should be no stop after a year or two of trying.

I just hope that they find a way to fix the problem of Thai players sooner than later and within our lifetime, we would able to sit in front of the TV and root for our own players during the French Open, instead of other nationals.