Home pairing face tough quarter-final in Thailand Open



"Amazing Twins" Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana kept the Thai flag flying at Impact Arena yesterday, using superior teamwork to overcome Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Australia's Marinko Matosevic 6-4 6-3 in the US$608,000 Thailand Open doubles first round.

The siblings, who made history by becoming the first locals to win the title here in 2007, needed just 59 minutes to power past first-time pairing Garcia-Lopez and Matosevic. This is only the second time the world No 70 have made it through the first round.

"We have never won a first-round match here, except in 2007, so victory today is very satisfying. The other team are more used to playing singles, while we have been playing doubles for a long time which gave us the edge,'' said elder sibling Sonchat.

"We were lucky to win crucial points and miss very few shots. We are playing pretty consistently this year and have a lot of confidence. But we want to focus on one match at a time,'' said younger brother Sanchai.

Thanks Thaination