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Thai tennis has just had its best Wimbledon in a generation – and it deserves some noise back home.
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It began with a Monday for the record books. For the first time in the Open Era, two Thai players won Grand Slam main-draw matches at the same event, as Mananchaya ‘Mai’ Sawangkaew and Lanlana Tararudee both came through their openers at the All England Club.
Sawangkaew's victory was the more dramatic: trailing 6-2, 5-2 and facing match point against 20th seed Maja Chwalińska, she saw the Pole slip behind the baseline while chasing a routine ball. Chwalińska needed a medical timeout and never fully recovered her movement; Sawangkaew seized the opening, winning six of the final seven games to complete a 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 turnaround. ‘I felt that I had nothing to lose,’ she said afterwards. Her grass-court plan was equally direct: take the ball early, finish points quickly and fight for everything.
A few hours later, Tararudee staged a comeback of her own, recovering from 5-1 down in the deciding set to beat 2025 Roland Garros junior champion Lilli Tagger 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-4. Both drew on Thailand's brief but proud tennis history. Sawangkaew revealed that Tamarine Tanasugarn – the country's grass-court icon, whose 2008 Wimbledon quarter-final remains the national benchmark – had texted to congratulate her and urge her to enjoy the grass.
Sawangkaew admitted she was touched that Tanasugarn had reached out at all. Tararudee, meanwhile, credits the team around her at former ATP world No.9 Paradorn Srichaphan's academy for a breakthrough season that took her from No.131 in January into the top 100 by May. The rise included her first WTA 125 title in Austin in March, where she beat 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu.
Sawangkaew was not finished. She followed her opening upset by sweeping aside American world No.81 Alycia Parks 7-5, 6-0, becoming only the second Thai woman to reach Wimbledon’s third round after Tanasugarn. The run earned her around 8.2 million baht in prize money. She then pushed 10th seed Karolina Muchová to a second-set tiebreak before bowing out 6-2, 7-6(1). Muchová has since reached Saturday's final, making Sawangkaew’s showing all the more impressive for a player who began the fortnight in qualifying. Tararudee exited one round earlier after a tight 7-5, 7-5 contest with 18th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, still the best Grand Slam result of the 21-year-old’s career.
Two Thai women, two career-best Grand Slam runs and one unforgettable fortnight. This is a moment worth celebrating.
Here's the full social set, updated to reflect the third-round result.