THE CRAZY GUY FROM KOREA

The best time to visit is May when the blossoms are on the trees and luscious strawberries can be bought on the street

During May the mornings are crisp and the days bright and sunny

The Korean guy in the front row was losing control. 


It was 1991 and Beijing was the venue for the Asian Games.  We were playing for at least a Mixed Doubles bronze medal and Thailand hadn’t won an Asian Games medal in tennis for almost 40 years! Personally, this was the biggest match of my tenure as Thai National Tennis Coach.  

The Thai team of Wittaya Samret and Orawan Thampensri were in a match with a typically tough Korean team.  You can always count on Koreans to make it a battle.  They are always in great shape physically, mentally very strong and always 100% committed.  


I had encountered the Korean attitude in many events prior to this.  Players from Korea could sometimes over-step the boundary of what was considered good sportsmanship sometimes.  This didn’t make them any friends on the tennis circuit and I had even witnessed Korean coaches physically abusing players several times.

I’m not sure whether or not the guy in the front row was a coach attached to the team or not, but he was calling instructions between each point.  The rules of tennis clearly state that you can not communicate with the players in any way during the match, either verbally or with signals. 


Several times he had been warned about communicating with the players’ during the match but he continued to do so.  


I caught his attention and asked him to stop talking to the players.  He replied that he was not “coaching” the players which, even if true, didn’t alter the fact that he was communicating non-stop with them.

News of the match had also now spread to other sporting venues in Beijing and the Thai media covering the Asian Games started arriving at the tennis venue in anticipation of a rare tennis medal for Thailand. Every Thai television channel was represented and all the Thai newspapers were there. 


I already knew all the Thai media people from other events we had played and they had always supported me personally and written favorable articles about my work with the Thai team.  For them and me, an Asian Games medal was the icing on the cake.  

But there was still the matter of this crazy Korean guy in the front row!  As the Thai duo began to dominate, he got more and more irate.  Once again I asked him to stop communicating with his players.  This time however he began climbing the seats in front of me with the clear intention of punching my head off my shoulders!  As he climbed over the first row and made his way up to my seat he continued shouting abuse at me, the blood vessels in his neck bulging and his face turning purple. 


The media guys around me began sensing a much bigger story than the Thai Mixed Doubles team picking up a bronze medal!  Camera lenses were poised for the biggest scope of their fortnight in Beijing. I could visualize the headlines in Thailand the next day announcing “Thai Tennis Coach Involved in Brawl at Asian Games”.  


Thankfully other more sensible Koreans in the group had a firm grip of his jacket and pulled him back to his seat.  Several from the Thai Media were claiming “He was going to pick a fight with you”! Still concerned about newspaper headlines the next morning I deflected their concerns by down-playing the whole incident.  


Thankfully Wittaya and Orawan did win Thailand’s first Asian Games tennis medal for 40 years. 

For years after Beijing I never traveled to Korea.  I guess my early experiences put me off going there, believing that the place would not be that friendly and the people difficult.  When I did actually go there several years ago with players I was shocked to find one of the prettiest countries, and the friendliest people you would wish to meet.  What a contrast!  


Today it would be my first pick of countries to live.  However if I ever did live there I might have to keep looking over my shoulder for that crazy guy from Beijing!

THE KITE BOY

Whenever someone asks me to describe India I usually say “You either love it or hate it, there’s no in-between”.  India is a place where joy and sadness walk hand in hand.  This story illustrates both the sadness of the place and also the resilience of the people who live under the poorest conditions there.

Sunday was a day off at the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Scheme (BAT).  After a long week of training both the boys and the coaches were glad of a day away from the courts.  I really enjoyed Sundays because it meant a sleep in, buffet lunch at the Connemara Hotel and a walk home through the tree lined streets.

There was one Sunday when I remember spending the morning down at Marina Beach with some of the boys flying kites.  Kite flying is a favorite pastime for boys in India, but particularly the kite fights between boys.  The tradition is that boys coat their lines with a mixture of finely ground glass and a type of wax like glue.  The strategy is to cross your line over your opponent’s line, cutting it before he cuts yours, and win the dog fight.

This Sunday there was a large group of young boys from the nearby slum the playing with us.  Every time one of the lines was cut the kite would float down the beach some considerable distance with the wind, and would be followed by boys of all sizes racing to collect it.  This was ok by us because the alternative was us retrieving the kite ourselves!  On this particular day one boy was always first to the kite and we would reward him with a few rupees.  As the day wore on most of the other boys gave up and went home but the “Kite Boy” continued to stay, and collect his reward!

When it came time to go home we were all getting ready to enter the van, changing sweaty shirts and brushing sand off ourselves.  I changed my T-shirt and handed it to the “Kite Boy” as a gift.  His eyes lit up when he realized he was being given my shirt, a white one with a large tennis logo on the front.  Finally we were in the van and on our way home. Eventually we forgot all about the “Kite Boy”.

On normal training mornings we used the beach for fitness runs before the boys went to school.  Starting at 6:10am we would run the length of the beach and back again, quite a tough run in the soft sand.  I was to be leaving India in a short time after 2 years coaching there.  There wouldn’t be too many more of these runs left for me.  

 On this day we had completed our run and were preparing to journey back by van to the BAT house.  As usual, there were several beggars around the van with us asking for money.  None of us took money to the beach for runs so we were ignoring them and while some of the boys were completing their stretch, others had already boarded the van.  I was just entering the van when something that was said made me stop.  One of the beggars had grabbed my attention.  I turned to the boy and asked “what did you say”?  He repeated “my friend sir, he asked me to tell you”.  “Who is your friend” I asked, still confused.   “You gave him a T-shirt sir”.  Then I remembered our day on the beach almost 10 months before.  The Kite Boy who had been our companion that day and had worked so hard to retrieve the kites.  “My friend sir, he told me to come and tell you” the beggar boy repeated.  “Tell me what” I asked.  “He wanted me to tell you he was dead” the boy said proudly, knowing he had my attention now and that I was interested in what he was saying.  I froze on the spot, “what do you mean, tell me he’s dead”? I asked.  “When my friend was lying in bed dying he asked me to find the foreign man who gave him the t-shirt and tell him he was dead”

When I did finally enter the van the boys could see something was wrong.  My face must have been white.  Several of the boys asked me what was wrong.  After I explained what I had been told, and they had remembered the kite boy all that time ago, they too fell into silence, stunned by the sadness of the story.

Even today, when I think of the small boy who had so much life on the beach that day I feel deep sadness.  But perhaps the saddest part of the story is that my one act of kindness concerning an old, sweaty t-shirt was remembered as a highlight in that boy’s life. So much so that he had asked his friend to find me one day and recount his last days alive so that I would know that he was dead.

TENNIS COACH FIGHTS WITH BLACK BEAR

The team of Sharad Kohli, Ameya Chandravakar, Paul Dale, Zubin Engineer and Vikrant Chadha

It was always necessary to have a local coach attached to the tennis program in India.  Many times getting things done was impossible for a foreigner and we needed the “expertise” of a local.  At the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Scheme in the early 1990s this person was Zubin Engineer.  Zubin came into the program around the same time as I arrived.  What he lacked in playing ability he made up for with his commitment to the boys and the program and very soon he was an integral part of the team. 

He would sometimes travel to tournaments in India with the boys and go to extraordinary lengths to make sure the boys were looked after.  On one trip he returned to Madras from a two-day day train journey having traveled back in the carriage reserved for stock!  Tickets had been impossible to acquire so he and the players had sat in the straw beside the animals. During his first few nights back home in Madras blood ran from his mouth as he slept on his side.  A visit to the doctor revealed that he had developed a stomach ulcer from the stress of the trip.

On a trip to Lucknow once the train had just departed Madras Station and everyone was settling in for the arduous two day journey. About 30 minutes from Madras Zubin approached me, his face white with anguish. He had lost the bag containing the money for the entire trip!  If you have never been onboard a 4^th clathe ss, non-air-conditioned carriage in India you can’t imagine the chaos.  People and bags are everywhere.  Finding an elephant would be difficult but trying to find a small bag with thousands of rupees would be almost impossible.  Zubin and I starting walking through the carriages (were we even heading in the correct direction?).  About 5 carriages into our search I noticed a guy sleeping with a bag poking out of his pillow.  I called Zubin over and pointed at the bag.  The relief in his face told me we had our bag back!

Most Zubin stories however were more humorous.  On another trip away from Madras, Zubin and the boys would cut through the local zoo in the mornings on their way to the tournament venue.  This was the best time to see the zoo because it was not open to the public yet and Zubin’s team had the whole zoo to themselves! Each morning they would enjoy their detour and eventually got to know the animals quite well.  There was a huge black bear that would always be sitting at the fence watching them walk by.  Most impressive was the huge claws of the bear, which could be clearly seen wrapped around the metal bars.

One morning our team of tennis players stopped to examine the bear a little closer. Zubin had an idea; he took out one of the tennis racquets from its bag and tapped the bear on the claw. No response from the bear.  Zubin tapped some more. Suddenly, and as calm as you like, the bear trapped the head of the racquet with his claw.  Zubin pulled the racquet to free it but the bear held on.  Most annoying was the fact that the harder Zubin pulled the more calmly the bear held on.  Several of the boys held Zubin around the waist and pulled in unison. Still the bear held on.  This scene continued for several minutes, Zubin and the boys trying to release the racquet from the bear in the early hours of the morning in the deserted zoo. Finally, more through boredom than anything the humans had done, the bear released the racquet. 

I often wondered what the zoo keeper would have thought if he had arrived at work that morning and found the bear holding onto an expensive $200 tennis racquet!

FUN WITH THE LANGUAGE & THE THAI NATIONAL ANTHEM STORY

Girl holding a donation box in a Bangkok mall

The huge billboard on the expressway to Bangkok’s old Don Muang airport always made me chuckle.  I could picture the Thai workers diligently putting it up in the hot sun, but not really knowing too much about its message.  The picture was of a muscular guy standing proudly in his underwear, six pack tensed and with the caption below reading “MEN  SUNDERWEAR”. 

For several years I entered my apartment block where a sign on the front door asked those who entered to be “QUITE PLEASE”.  This was a sign brought from a business supply store and I can only imagine that several thousand of these erroneous signs were sold around Thailand. 

I often wonder why many of these businesses didn’t have the English checked before putting signs up in public, like the restaurant near my home with the street sign out front saying “BOND STEET STAEK HOUSE” and the donation box for stray street dogs announcing “MEN’S BEST FRIENDS NEED HELPS”. 

Another donation box I saw recently in a local department store asked people to “DONATE TO THE MENTALLY RETARDED”!

Some advertisements can be so politically in-correct as to be off the charts.  Like the advertisement in the back of a motor-rickshaw in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  Some entrepreneurial people had got their hands on discarded rocket launchers from the war and created a unique business.  The sign in the rickshaw read “ROCKET LAUNCHER FIRING RANGE: YOUR CHOICE OF TARGET, CHICKENS OR COWS”.  I only hope the cow at least had a chance to run away.

Some food menu’s can really make you think twice or at least consider what you are about to eat.  The “NOODLES (THICKEN SOUP)” sounds tasty but may have been tough to swallow.  

For years my name appeared in Davis Cup programs and on my team tracksuit as Pual Dale.

But the laughs can happen both ways.  I have also had my share of embarrassing gaffs with the Thai language.  

I was presenting tennis awards to a large group of young players once and announced a girls name incorrectly.  As soon as I said her name I saw a horrified look descend over the entire gathering.  Instead of pronouncing her name correctly I had mixed my tones up (Thai is a tonal language) and instead of saying her name I had described the act a lowering a coffin into a grave.  Not a good thing in ghost sensitive Thailand!

I also got things horribly wrong many years ago when I was learning to speak Thai.  I was particularly keen to learn the Thai National Anthem so that I could sing along with my players at the opening of International tennis events.  

My wife taught me The Thai National anthem which I was able to memorize ok, but I didn’t know the meaning of the words.  

The first chance I got to actually perform the song to a live audience was in Pakistan for Davis Cup.  Both teams were assembled along one service line and the national anthems were played while the crowd stood silently as a mark of respect.  As the Thai National anthem started up I was pretty confident I could go through the whole song without a problem.  I could also sense that some members of the crowd were watching me to see whether or not this foreign coach could speak Thai or knew the words to the national anthem. 

I began to sing but immediately realized the words I was singing were not the same as the rest of the team.  The player to my right< Narathorn Srichaphan,  gave me a sideways glance which caused me to stop singing.  

It turned out that my wife had taught me the words to a children’s nursery song which went something like “Chang, chang, chang, chang, chang, nong koey hen chang lue plaow”? This roughly translates into “Elephant, elephant, elephant, elephant, elephant, young boy have you seen an elephant before”? Very embarrassing at the time!

So, while I see Thais' butchering the English language all the time I think back to my embarrassing  first attempt at the Thai National anthem knowing that it's not an easy think to learn a second language! 

SEA GAMES: EPIC DOUBLES ENCOUNTERS

The 1995 Thai SEA Games Men's Team, Chiang Mai, Thailand

The South East Asian (SEA) Games are held every two years and are fiercely contested by countries within the region.  Countries such as Thailand, The Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore and Myanmar compete in a wide range of events, including tennis.  It’s a South East Asian version of the Olympics and without the bigger countries participating it gives the smaller, emerging countries a chance to shine and to gauge whether they are improving. 

I first captained the Thai team in 1989 when the SEA Games were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Of the 7 gold medals available in the tennis competition we picked up 3, more than any other country that year. The biggest prize was the Men’s Team gold medal, beating the Indonesian Men’s team in the semi-final and The Philippines in the final. The match against Indonesia went down to the final doubles after the two singles rubbers had been split one all.  Indonesia had qualified and played in the Davis Cup World Group that year and gave a really good account of themselves against Germany which included Becker and Stich, both eventual Wimbledon Champions.

The doubles against Indonesia went down to the deciding third set and both teams were on serve at 3-4 in favor of the Thai’s. I was becoming concerned that at the end of every point the Indonesian team were finishing closer to the net.  This meant that the Indonesians were beginning to dominate the net exchanges and would therefore be more likely to break serve in the deciding set before we would. At the changeover I decided to ask Wittaya Samret, our doubles specialist, to attack the return of serve down the line as forcefully as possible.  I had a lot of faith in Wittaya and sometimes players at this level only need to be told what to do and they will find a way to do it.   

Moments before his first attempt at returning serve Wittaya looked over at me for reassurance.  I gave him a confident nod and tried to look like I only expected a positive outcome.  The first serve landed in deep and bounced high. Wittaya ran around his backhand and hit the biggest forehand of his life, the ball passing the player at net so fast he never had a chance. Wittaya looked at me exhilarated by what he had done; I nodded once again with my poker face on.  The Indonesian at net gave us both a sarcastic look as if to say “that was just luck, you could never do that again”. We played a good point on the other side and the score was 15-30, Wittaya to return again.  This time the server went to Wittaya’s forehand sensing that Wittaya would be expecting another serve to his backhand and try to run around it again.  Wittaya was too experienced for that, again hitting the return as hard as he could at the Indonesian net man.  Again another sizzling winner that almost cost the Indonesian his life!  We broke serve that game and those two crucial returns had put us through to the final where we eventually beat The Philippines for the Team Gold.

I captained Thailand again in the SEA Games held in Chiang Mai in 1995 where we picked up 4 of the possible 7 gold medals, and helped Thailand capture another 4 gold’s in the Brunei SEA Games in 1997.  Brunei saw the emergence of Paradorn Srichaphan and Danai Udomchoke into senior national teams but I will remember Brunei for another doubles match against our old foes Indonesia.  Once again it was one rubber all and the doubles would decide who would win the Team gold.

It would have been like any other Thailand versus Indonesia SEA Games encounter but for one thing, the centre court was full of Thai and Indonesian laborers who were living in Brunei supply cheap labour for the building of roads and to work on construction sites.  They had been given a few days off work to watch the SEA Games and few would have witnessed a real tennis match in their lives.  Few would have bothered to watch this one either if it wasn’t for the Srichaphan brothers Thanakorn, Narathorn and Paradorn who come from the same area of Thailand as them, the North East. 

The noise between points and sometimes during points was deafening.  The Thai part of the crowd were getting the better of the Indonesian section of the crowd and several times the Indonesian players stopped play to protest to the umpire but it was impossible to do anything. Narathorn began conversing with the crowd in the unique dialect from the north eastern part of Thailand, fanning the emotions even more.

Thailand won the encounter easily that day and a lot of Thai workers went home happy, proud to be Thai, and with bragging rights on the construction site the next day!

TAMARINE TANASUGARN: THE THAI GIRL THAT COULD

Tamarine Tanasugarn with Paul Dale during the 1995 SEA Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand

The first time I noticed Tamarine Tanasugarn she was on a court with her father practicing early one morning before school.  Her father, Veerachai, would feed her balls to hit from an old bag placed on the ground beside him. There was an intensity about her then at 9 years old that she retains even today. I saw more of her 2 years later when I did a tennis camp in Bangkok for Thailand’s top juniors, and it was obvious to all that she was extremely talented.

There was one funny incident at that camp that could only happen in Thailand.  One morning during the warm-up I called for everyone to organize themselves into single-file and “leapfrog” their way from the back of the line towards the front.  In my innocence I thought that this would be a fun way to warm-up and would be a change from the usual jog around the courts.  There seemed to be a problem however as all the players, “Tammy” included, would all fall off the side of the person in front instead of leap frogging directly over their head. After I stopped them several times to demand more effort and to ask that it be done properly, the players still continued to fall off to the side of the player in front.

Only after some time, and seeing how frustrated I was getting, did an assistant Thai coach explain to me that because all Thai people wore sacred Buddha amulets around their necks, the players were uncomfortable passing themselves over top of a Buddha image.  In Thai culture your feet and lower extremities should never be higher than a Buddha image!

Tammy went on to enjoy an amazing career, reaching a world ranking high of 19 in May of 2002. What has been remarkable is that she has done all this with a game that is built on using the pace of her opponent and reflecting the ball into the corners. With this unique style Tammy has beaten many of the world’s top players including reaching the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2008.  Several players have gone on record as saying she is an extremely tricky opponent, particularly on her favorite surface of grass.  During Tammy’s best years Thailand also witnessed the rise of Paradon Srichaphan who became the darling of Thailand for his exploits on the men’s ATP Tour.  This was a great pity as her accomplishments were probably slightly over-looked by the Thai public during that time.

Tammy is now ranked around 100 on the WTA ranking list and will probably retire from professional tennis within the next few years.  She has represented Thailand around the world and been a fine example of the best characteristics of Thailand and its people.  Always smiling, gracious in defeat and never taking herself too seriously, Tammy can be proud of what she has achieved in her tennis career.

MARTINA HINGIS THE SWISS MISS

In 2005 Martina Hingis decided to make a come-back to professional tennis.  Martina had walked away from tennis in 2002 after a career that saw her rise to number 1 in the rankings and stay there for a total of 206 weeks. She captured 15 Grand Slam titles which included 5 singles, 9 women’s doubles and 1 mixed doubles titles.

Martina’s first match back was going to be the Pattaya Women’s Open, held annually in the seaside resort town of Pattaya, Thailand.  The tournament is owned and run by an old friend of mine Geoffrey Rowe.  Geoffrey has been running women’s events in Thailand for many years and Thai tennis owes him a huge debt of thanks.  It was his wild card into the Pattaya Women’s Open that gave Tamarine Tanasugarn her big opportunity to break into the WTA Tour.  Ironically “Tami” under-performed in Pattaya for many years after her break through there, perhaps due to the pressure of playing in front of her Thai fans.

Each year Geoffrey asked me to help with sparring partners for the women participants.  Hingis was scheduled to arrive into Pattaya 10 days early in order to prepare. 

I took two male players with me to Pattaya, Alex Korch, a Canadian who had been training with me for the past few months, and Anuwat Dalodom, a Thai player who was in his last year as a junior.

The first training session certainly made it clear this was not going to be like any other training session we had done before.  There were television crews all the way from Europe filming her every move. Throughout the week we changed courts often and everywhere we went in Pattaya there were crowds of spectators watching our practise. 

I had also allowed my daughter, Isabella, to sit and watch at courtside. Early into the practice Isabella had made a noise that drew the attention of Martina’s mother Melanie. Melanie Molitorova was on-court for every session and she made it clear that there was to be no distractions at courtside during practice sessions. 

On-court Martina was the consummate professional, focused and hard working.  It was a great opportunity for me to see her game up close and to talk to her about her game.  It was obvious that Martina’s mother had a big part to play in getting her to the top.

Martina was drawn to play the German, Marlene Weingartner in a first round evening match of the tournament and a capacity crowd gathered to watch.  

When the match started Martina was clearly the better player and raced away to a handy lead in the first set.  What happened next was one of the most bizarre incidents I have ever witnessed in my many years of watching tennis.  

During a point Weingartner popped up a high defensive lob and Martina hit a confident smash to finish the point.  However the smash hit the courtside scoreboard, sending the metal letters and numbers flying in all directions.  

Play stopped while the young Thai ball-boy replaced the metal plates on which the letters are painted.  Unfortunately the ball boy began struggling with the surname Weingartner and made several failed attempts to get the name right, much to the amusement of the large crowd.  By the time the ball-boy had made his fifth attempt at Weingartner  (without success), the crowd were hooting with laughter.

The only person not laughing was Marlene Weingartner.  She was being beaten badly in the match by Martina Hingis and now even her name was receiving ridicule from the crowd. She must have felt very disrespected!

When the match finally resumed Weingartner began to go for her shots.  She was hitting everything as hard as she could and everything was going in.  She seemed to have overcome her slow, hesitant start and was now playing like someone who not only thought she was worthy to be on the same court as Martine, but should also win the match!

Marlene Weingartner went on to win the set and the match thanks to some old fashioned controlled aggressive anger.  The Hingis come-back had suffered a major set back.

Despite her loss in the Pattaya Women’s Open Hingis did go on to win 3 more singles titles before retiring again a few years later.  Alex, Anuwat and I were privileged to spend time with her on and off court during her time in Pattaya.