“Nong” was a Thai boy named Anuwat Dalodom and he trained and traveled to tournaments with me for two years. Nong (Pictured wearing cap) came from a well to do family, which in Thailand meant that he would be pampered and would not have to do much for himself. However he had the biggest, most generous heart and we became very close.
Its worth noting that in Nongs training group there were 4 players whose names were Nong, Dong, Dton and Dtong which, when pronounced correctly in Thai also meant I had to use 4 different tones. If that wasn’t tough enough for a foreigner Dton and Dtong were identical twins!
Nong also became a very good player. He had an ITF Junior world ranking of 74, was tall for a Thai and had a calm disposition which helped him under pressure. When Martina Hingis decided to make her comeback to tennis after two years in retirement, her first tournament was in Pattaya, Thailand. For about 10 days before the tournament Nong and I helped her prepare. We practiced morning and evening and Nong was the perfect sparring partner, hardly missing a ball and feeding her a consistent pace throughout.
On trips Nong would pack his tennis clothes and equipment but inevitably there would be one bag full of snacks. This snack bag would contain cartons of dry noodles and packets of chewy dried squid strips. Nong could live for weeks on noodles and “Squidy” and finding him sitting on his bed bent over a cup of steaming hot noodles was common. He also had a curious habit of taking his mouth to the fork rather than fork to his mouth that I could never correct.
At one tournament in New Delhi, India it was winter time. The sky in the mornings would be clear, but with the sun only just making it over the distant buildings, temperatures before the matches started were as low as 9 degrees Celsius. Many of the competitors would assemble near the courts in the morning before the matches, often drinking a hot cup of tea just to keep warm. Nong and I were staying in the accommodation attached to the stadium so it was a short walk to reach the courts. On the first morning I had arrived at the courts early and when Nong eventually came up the pathway to the courts I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Nong had just showered and his hair was still dripping wet. He was wearing a light T-shirt, shorts and sandals, hardly suitable for winter mornings! As we stood together the cold would begin to counter that warm feeling you have after a hot shower and within a short time Nongs’ teeth would be chattering and his lips trembling uncontrollably. Each morning I would warn him of the risk of catching a cold but he would never listen.
He had started to really enjoy the curry puffs at the small canteen under the stands. They tasted great and Nong would eat 3-4 curry puffs each morning. One morning I was waiting near the courts when I noticed an old bicycle propped against a tree. The bicycle had two grubby satchels slung over the back which caught my attention. To my horror I saw that the satchels contained Nongs Curry Puffs, all jammed together and wrapped individually in a small piece of waxed paper. The bicycle obviously made its way through the streets of Delhi each morning, through the dust and exhaust fumes, all the way to the tennis stadium… and to Nong.
When Nong arrived that morning I asked him to take a peep inside the satchels on the bicycle and after seeing his beloved Curry Puffs in that condition he never had another Curry Puff on that trip or any subsequent trips.
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