Pol Snaps Losing Streaks in ITF Circuit
Former Thai No 1 Pol Wattanakul finally snapped his ITF losing streaks after he blast 10 aces to beat Kim Seong Kwan of South Korea 6-3 6-1 in the opening round of the US$10,000 Cal-Comp & XYZ Printing ITF Thailand Men’s Futures 4 at the True Arena Hua Hin on Tuesday.
The former world No 716 who dropped below 2,000 due to health problem and a lack of confidence took just 67 minutes to win his first ITF match in almost seven months.
“This win for me is a load-off. I was under great pressure during the losing streaks and even considered retiring,” said the 21-year-old who regained his confidence back last week by reaching a local TATP Masters final in Bangkok.
“Good results from last week really helps me psychologically. I’m still not 100 per cent physically because of gastro and don’t expect much these two weeks. But it turns out I play well when I have no pressure,” added the former national Davis Cup player.
Health problem has slowed down the Bangkokian since the junior years. He used to stop playing two for two years because of shoulder injury. Lately he was diagnosed to be allergic to lactose which caused him to vomit frequently over the past several months.
Although Pol is determined to become the cream of the crops again next year, he will not carry on if the health condition doesn’t allow him to.
“I will try to cure all these problems and hopefully I can play good tennis again. However, I already told my dad I will say goodbye to tennis for good if I cannot be fully healthy again. It’s really discouraging to play with all these symptoms,” Pol said.
In the other first round actions, three more Thai successfully reserved their second round spots. The Kingdom’s No 1 Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul survived a tough challenge from Russian lucky loser Danila Arsenov before advancing with a 6-4 2-6 6-2 win in two hours and five minutes.
Thai No 3 Kittipong Wachiramanowong needed less than 50 minutes to score a double bagel win over fifth seed Issei Okamura 6-0 6-0 while fellow Davis Cup player Pruchya Isarow beat Russian lucky loser Andrei Levine of Russia after the latter retired with back injury at 1-5.
However Thai No 2 Jirat Navasirisomboon crashed out early, losing to Nam Hyun Woo of South Korea 3-6 2-6 and No 4 Phassawit Burapharitta went down to seventh seed Chung Hog of South Korea 0-6 0-6.
Top three seeds Sadio Doumbia of France, Temur Isamilov of Uzbekistan and Lim Yong-Kyu of South Korea, the Asian Games double gold medalist were all safe to the second round with straight set wins.
