Ratiwatana twins: We’ve been participating in Universiades until we «got too old» 02.02.2012

On the last Universiade in Shenzhen tennis players from Thailand got the first place in the number of the won medals with 2 gold, 1 silver and bronze ones. However, the women were the ones to get the most medals. Nudnida Luangnam and Nungnadda Wannasuk were the best female players, leaving Ksenia Lykina from Kazan behind, who got bronze. Weerapat Doakmaiklee and Varatchaya Wongteanchai were third in mixed doubles and won gold in women’s. Great results for the country that used to have a couple of strong tennis players: Paradorn Srichaphan and Tamarine Tanasugarn. But this was in the past, but our speakers came into big sports when neither Thai government, nor the whole Asia could not even dream about medals.

— Did you have any examples set by Asian athletes when you were children?
— Asian tennis players started to make their way into world tennis only in the middle of the 90’s. At the beginning the whole Asia was following the result of Michael Chang (I got a feeling that the brothers have expected this question. Because a short (175cm) for this type of sport American athlete of Chinese ancestry was the idol of Asian tennis players for quite long. And for the world community as well, winning Roland Garros at the age of 17 in 1989. — Author’s note).

When we took up professional tennis, we got an example to follow — Paradorn Srichaphan. She is three years older than us and he started showing good results at the age of 17. We were 14 then. We were looking up to him. (All-knowing web has told us, that Paradorn had close tights with Russia. With a Rusian. With a Russian girl. In November 2007 he got married to a Canadian-Russian model Natalia Glebova, “Miss Universe 2004. Unfortunately the divorced a year ago. — Author’s note)

— You two are the strongest pair in Thailand. Moreover, you are concentrated on pair play. At Have you ever taken part in the Olympics or Universiades?
— We participated in Universiades up until 2007. Considering the fact that only sportsmen under 27 are allowed to compete on Universiades, that year was the last one for us. Fortunately, it was the year of the Universiade in Bangkok. We really like to take part in these competitions. We were not lucky enough to get to the Olympics, but the Universiades made up for that. Plenty of sports and sportsmen, all living in the same village, all this creates a feeling like you’re inside of the real Olympics. Feels great!
In 2008 we were really close to the Olympics, but our dream did not come true. If the rules for tennis were like to the other sports with quotes for athletes from different continents we would have definitely been in. But in tennis rating is all that matters. You are allowed to play only when you are ahead of all the others, not only players from your part of the world. That is why it would be really difficult for us to get to London. We must obtain a sufficient rating to jump into the last train of the tennis players going to the Olympic London”.

— Going back to the Kazan Tournament let us point out that in the pair competition even half of the seeded pairs couldn’t make it to the semifinals. Spanish players Munoz-De La Nava and Menendez Maseiras, Russian Kravchuk and Kudryavtsev. How could you explain the misfortunes of the leaders?
— Let us be honest. Is that good or bad for us? It is good that we have less challengers now. Bad that we would not have a chance to take revenge on Konstantin Kravchuk and Alexandr Kydryavtsev we lost to on the last tournament.

— How did Kazan get on your list?
— Accidentally. We were going to take part in an Italian tournament, but it didn’t work out and we decided to follow Plan #2 and went to Kazan. We had to choose between Kazan and Australia. But considering the fact that we had a tournament in Germany before that, we decided to come here. Do we regret that? Just a little, it is way too cold here. We cannot explore the city because of that. We can only play and go to the restaurants or to the bus stop, running.

— What has made you come here again? Bigger prize fund or warm weather?
— Can we choose both? (Laugh). When we were initially looking up the conditions, it showed minus 24 degrees. We were terrified. But when we got here, it was not that terrible. Your Tennis Academy is fabulous, living conditions are great and the prize fund is worth that. What else do we tennis players need?

— Participants of the Kazan tournament had a chance to visit a basketball game of the Euro League. Why haven’t you taken this chance?
— To tell you the truth, we are not interested in basketball at all. Even NBA games are not attractive for us. Football is another story, or ice hockey we would love to see. We want to see new unusual for Thailand sports. For example, we went to baseball last summer when we were in the USA.

— Unfortunately “AkBars’ is out of the town on sport matters. We can offer you another hockey but played with a ball outside.
— Does anybody play outside with this weather? Are you kidding? No, that is too exotic for us, we cannot afford this. (Laugh.)

— Thai people have got to know the Russians lately. They come massively on vacation. Have you seen the difference between our people on vacation in another country and at home?
— Russian tourists come to resorts mostly. Pattaya is called a Russian city in Thailand. What can we say? They are far more happy on vacation.

— What are your plans after the tournament in Kazan?
— First, we will take a three-week rest from the tournaments we had in January. Then we will have a Davis-Cup game against Sri-Lanka. We need to be well-prepared disregarding the fact that our team is the favorite with our captain Paradorn Srichaphan.

— You are twins. But it’s quite easy to tell one of you from another looking at you hairstyles. Have you done it on purpose?
— More like accidentally. One of us got a haircut and the other was just too lazy for that. That is where the difference is from.

— Can you tell if your names have an interpretation?
— You’ve guessed it. Our last name has a beautiful meaning. Ratiwatana means “eternal love” in Thai.

Dzhaudat Abdullin