Noppawan and Nicha get wild cards into PTT Pattaya Open 2011

Written by: Staff on 3rd February 2011

Noppawan and Nicha get wild cards into PTT Pattaya Open 2011

Noppawan Lertcheerwakarn (THA) |

The Organising Committee of the PTT Pattaya Open after consultation with the Lawn Tennis Association of Thailand has awarded wild cards to two of Thailand’s rising tennis stars, Noppawan Lertcheewakarn and Nicha Lertpitaksinchai into the main draw of the US$220,000 PTT Pattaya Open which is being held at the Dusit Thani Pattaya from 6 – 13 February 2011.

The two young stars, who are members of the Thailand Fed Cup team, will be joining Tamarine Tanasugarn in the main draw of the event. They earned their selection as a result of their performances during the 2010 season.

Noppawan has risen to a career-high ranking of 181 in the world, due to some good results on the ITF Challenger circuit, where her best results were winning an event in Tsukuba, Japan and finishing runner-up at another event in Cairns, Australia. She also made it through qualifying earlier this month at the WTA event in Auckland, New Zealand.

Likewise Nicha is also sitting on a career high ranking of 425, she too has been active on the ITF Challenger circuit cumulating in winning the tournament in Bangalore, India, where she started out as qualifier and went all the way through to the final without dropping a set.

Both girls performed well in Pattaya last year, Noppawan losing a tight three set match to Chanelle Scheepers in the opening round, whilst Nicha made it to the final round of qualifying before having to retire with a leg injury.

Depending on the draw, which will be made on Sunday 6 February, the Thai pair may be faced with a tough test against some of the world’s best players, such as Vera Zvonareva, Ana Ivanovic, Daniela Hantuchova or Maria Kirilenko.

Topics: Nicha Lertpitaksinchai, Noppawan Lertcheewakarn