Tamarine Tanasugarn

Tamarine Tanasugarn was a Thai tennis player who played professionally from 1994 to 2016. Tanasugarn achieved a career-best singles ranking of #19 in the world in May 2002, and a doubles ranking of #15 in the world in September 2004. She played on Thailand’s Fed Cup team from 1993 to 2015, won multiple medals at the Asian and Southeast Asian Games, and earned more than $3.4 million in prize money during her career.

Tanasugarn was born in Los Angeles and moved to Bangkok with her family when she was five. Her father, Virachai Tanasugarn, played basketball for the Thailand National Team at two pre-Olympic qualification tournaments (1960 and 1964), but did not compete at the Olympics himself. He inspired and encouraged his daughter to play tennis. When Tanasugarn was 17 she reached the girls’ singles final at the 1995 Wimbledon Championship but lost to Poland’s Aleksandra Olsza in straight sets.

Tanasugarn won her first of 15 ITF singles titles in December 1993 with victory against Choi Ju-Yeon in Manila. As a doubles player Tanasugarn also won eight ITF titles from September 1995 to November 2019. On the WTA Tour she won eight doubles titles with the first one coming at the 1998 Auckland Open in New Zealand with partner Nana Miyagi. Tanasugarn won four WTA singles titles from February 2003 to October 2010 with victories against Iroda Tulyaganova, Dinara Safina, Yanina Wickmayer, and Kimiko Date-Krumm.

At Grand Slams Tanasugarn reached the singles quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2008 losing to the eventual champion Venus Williams in straight sets. In the doubles Tanasugarn reached the quarter-finals at the 2004 US Open and the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 2011. She competed at four consecutive Olympic Games; 1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athína, and 2008 Beijing. Her best performances came in the doubles at the Atlanta and Sydney Games when she reached the quarter-finals each time with her partner Benjamas Sangaram.

Outside of the Olympics Tanasugarn won five medals at four editions of the Asian Games, including gold in the doubles with Luksika Kumkhum in 2014. From 1995 to 2019 at six editions of the Southeast Asian Games Tanasugarn won six gold, eight silver, and four bronze medals.