Arthur Ashe Stadium is one of the most iconic venues in all of sport.
Before 1997, the Louis Armstrong Arena was the primary venue for the US Open.
After years of hosting the tournament’s biggest matches, Louis Armstrong Arena was relegated to secondary venue status when the $254 million Arthur Ashe Stadium opened.
The first match at the venue was played in the singles draw of the US Open women’s event on August 25, 1997.
Winning in straight sets, the first-ever Arthur Ashe Stadium victor proceeded to make history for her country throughout her career.
Tamarine Tanasugarn won the first-ever match on Arthur Ashe Stadium
After Whitney Houston helped welcome fans to the Arthur Ashe Stadium with an iconic rendition of ‘One Moment in Time’, Tamarine Tanasugarn and Chanda Rubin took to the court to play their US Open first-round match.
Making her US Open main draw debut, Thailand’s Tanasugarn looked to be the underdog, taking on former Australian Open semifinalist and home favorite, Rubin.
The first set was tight, but it was the young Thai star who edged it, winning 6-4, moving within one set of the second round.
Remarkably, she dominated from then on, handing out the first bagel [6-0 set] in Arthur Ashe Stadium history, securing a 6-4, 6-0 win.
Having made her mark in the first-ever match played at the venue, Tanasugarn wasn’t satisfied, as she still had a job to do in New York.
Winning her second-round match against Colombia’s Maria Alejandra Vento, the youngster continued to impress.
It was in the third round that her run would come to an end, however, losing out to Joannette Krueger in three sets, 7-6, 5-7, 4-6.
She returned to the third round on two more occasions, enjoying her career-best run at Flushing Meadows in 2003, when she qualified for the last 16.
It was elsewhere on the WTA Tour that Tanasugarn played her best tennis, soon making history for her home country, Thailand.
How Tamarine Tanasugarn became Thailand’s greatest-ever women’s player
Within five years of her historic win on Arthur Ashe Stadium, Tanasugarn reached her career-high ranking of 19th in the world, the highest ranking ever achieved by a Thai WTA player.
She did so by recording consistent results at Grand Slam and WTA 1000 tournaments, while making her presence felt at the smaller tour-level events.
Throughout her career, Tanasugarn contested 11 WTA finals, winning four, two on hard, and two on grass.
| Final | Surface | Opponent | Result |
| 1996 Pattaya Open (Thailand) | Hard | Ruxandra Dragomir | Loss |
| 2000 Birmingham Classic (UK) | Grass | Lisa Raymond | Loss |
| 2001 Japan Open | Hard | Monica Seles | Loss |
| 2002 Canberra International (Australia) | Hard | Anna Smashnova | Loss |
| 2002 Qatar Open | Hard | Monica Seles | Loss |
| 2003 Hyderabad Open (India) | Hard | Iroda Tulyaganova | Win |
| 2006 Bangkok Open (Thailand) | Hard | Vania King | Loss |
| 2008 Rosmalen Open (Netherlands) | Grass | Dinara Safina | Win |
| 2009 Rosmalen Open (Netherlands) | Grass | Yanina Wickmayer | Win |
| 2010 Pattaya Open (Thailand) | Hard | Vera Zvonareva | Loss |
| 2010 Japan Women’s Open | Hard | Kimiko Date-Krumm | Win |
A grass-court specialist, Tanasugarn won back-to-back titles at the Rosmalen Open in 2008 and 2009.
After beating Dinara Safina in the 2008 final, she secured her second win over the Russian star in the semifinals a year later, picking up her first career victory over a world number one.
It was on the grass that Tanasugarn enjoyed her best-ever Grand Slam result, when she reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2008.
After stunning the number-two seed Jelena Jankovic in round four, Tanasugarn took on the legendary Venus Williams for a place in the semis.
The Thai star put up a good fight but came up short, losing in straight sets, 4-6, 3-6.
For all her singles success on the WTA Tour, Tanasugarn often found her best tennis when representing her country…
Tamarine Tanasugarn’s record for Thailand
In 2000, Tanasugarn competed alongside Paradorn Srichapan, a former top-ten player in the Hopman Cup.
Narrowly topping the group, Thailand advanced to their first-ever final, where they played South Africa.
| Rank | Team | Wins | Losses | Matches | Sets |
| 1 | Thailand | 2 | 1 | 6-3 | 12-9 |
| 2 | Austria | 2 | 1 | 5-4 | 12-9 |
| 3 | Australia | 1 | 2 | 3-6 | 7-14 |
| 4 | Slovakia | 0 | 2 | 1-5 | 5-11 |
| 5 | Japan | – | – | – | – |
In the opening match of the final, Tanasugarn took an early lead against Amanda Coetzer, 6-3, but failed to hold on to the advantage, losing in three sets.
Srichaphan proceeded to lose to Wayne Ferreira in the second match, as South Africa lifted the trophy.
Thailand may have missed out on the title, but Tanasugarn and Srichaphan’s efforts were still celebrated, as they made the nation proud.
Tanasugarn was no stranger to making her country proud, bringing home a total of seven gold medals across the Asian and Southeast Asian Games.
- 2014 Asian Games – Gold medal in doubles
- 1995 Southeast Asian Games – Gold medal in singles
- 2007 Southeast Asian Games – Gold medal in doubles
- 2007 Southeast Asian Games – Gold medal in team
- 2009 Southeast Asian Games – Gold medal in doubles
- 2009 Southeast Asian Games – Gold medal in team
- 2015 Southeast Asian Games – Gold medal in team
When Tanasugarn retired from tennis in 2016, she did so as the greatest Thai woman to have ever picked up a racket.
There aren’t currently any Thai women ranked inside the world’s top 100, with world number 123 Mananchaya Sawangkaew the nation’s best hope for success.
Sawangkaew was last seen in action at the French Open, where she lost in the second round of qualifying.
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