Tanasugarn Still Going Strong at 31

LONDON, England - In her seventh appearance in the fourth round at Wimbledon she became the first Thai woman to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event, and at 31-years-old Tamarine Tanasugarn proved it's never too late to give it your all.

At Wimbledon she beat players at least eight years her junior, including world No.2 Jelena Jankovic. Facing four-time champion Venus Williams in the quarterfinals, Tanasugarn, a Buddhist, took a philosophical approach to the match which she ultimately lost, 64 63.

"Previously I had always been very disappointed that I hadn't made it to the quarterfinals because I made it through to the fourth round so many years before," Tanasugarn said. "But this year it's the only year that I haven't really expected to go further, which means I can just concentrate on my game.

"I'm happy to be in the fourth round and now in the quarterfinals. So whatever round I'm in, I'm happy. I won't be disappointed if I lose because I'm happy with the way I'm playing."

'Tammy' turned professional in 1994 and since then she's had her ups and downs, making her way through the ITF circuit and on to the Tour, reaching her first Tour singles final at Pattaya City in 1996. She finished runner-up in a series of tournaments, including Birmingham in 2000 and Canberra and Doha in 2002 - debuting into the Top 20 that year - and finally breaking through to win her first Tour singles title in Hyderabad, India in 2003.

But she began to struggle in 2005 and reaching the quarterfinals at Birmingham was her best result that year. In her late 20s it was never going to be easy to up her game, especially having to return to the ITF Circuit after taking a steep drop down the rankings to No.125. At the age of 27 most players might have thrown in the towel, and even Tanusugarn thought she was close to doing so.

"During that time it was tough; I was thinking to stop and two years ago at Wimbledon I had to play in qualifying, so I would just go out there and have fun," said Tanasugarn. "But suddenly, after the qualies I was back in the third round again and I felt like I was starting over, and at this kind of age you really have to take care of yourself; your body, your mind, a lot of things. Now I've learnt to take care of my body more and see how I'm feeling."

Since 2006 her game has shown steady improvements, proving that it's never too late to learn and improve. As a finalist at Bangkok in 2006 and after winning a series of tournaments on the ITF Circuit, Tanasugarn's fruits of labour paid off this year, winning the Ordina Open in the Netherlands as a qualifier, beating recent Roland Garros runner-up Dinara Safina in the final, rising up the rankings once again from No.85 to No.60. After Wimbledon she'll be back in the Top 40.

Her efforts over the years have been inspiring for tennis players worldwide and in particular for the Asian tennis scene, which has also spurred Zheng Jie from China into the latter rounds here at Wimbledon after shocking world No.1 Ana Ivanovic in the third round.

But as Tanasugarn prepares for her life beyond tennis - she's planning on studying a Masters in business at Bangkok University - she knows the world is her oyster.

"I'm not sure what I'm going to do. But if I try to help and improve tennis in Thailand I will love to do that. Or I would like to do something (different from) tennis also because I've been a tennis player for many years, and now I want to do something different like a normal people also."