Tamarine wants to stand tall

By Pritha Sarkar

LONDON (Reuters) - If Tamarine Tanasugarn could be granted one wish -- it is to be reborn as a taller woman.

On Tuesday, Venus Williams proved a towering obstacle in Tamarine's path to glory and the Thai had no hesitation in highlighting why she had been unable continue her dream run at Wimbledon.

"I was joking myself, I have so many break points in the first set. But Venus doesn't give you any easy chance... she was acing me many times. In my next life I want to be tall as her, please," begged Tamarine after her 6-4 6-3 quarter-final defeat.

Tamarine, at 31 the oldest player left among the women, has led a charmed life over the last nine days when she claimed the scalps of 13th seed Vera Zvonareva in the second round and second seed Jelena Jankovic in the last 16.

Her dogged display helped her to become the first Thai woman to reach the last eight of a grand slam -- at her 45th attempt.

But on Tuesday, she felt completely dwarfed by the presence of the 1.85 meter tall Williams.

The American used her 20 cm height advantage over Tamarine to devastating effect on Tuesday.

Each time the Thai had the American backed up against a wall, Williams unleashed a bullet of a delivery to get out of trouble. In total she hit eight aces.

In fact, Tamarine earned 10 break points during the contest, two more than Williams but managed to convert only one. The American's success rate stood at a more impressive 50 percent.

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"Her game and her style is really hard because she has a very, very (important) weapon, big serve and big groundstrokes," said Tamarine, who was ranked as high as 19th in the world in 2002.

"Today I tried to be aggressive and step up but she just served very well today. That's the ability of great players."

The unexpected run here also injected a new lease of life into Tamarine, who said she had come close to quitting the sport after her ranking went into freefall two years ago and she was forced to qualify for Wimbledon.

"I was struggling the last two years. In (2006) I was thinking, if I don't play well, don't feel good, I'm going to stop with my career," said Tamarine, who plans to pursue a business degree once she hangs up her rackets for good.

Any thoughts of retirement have now been placed on the backburner and instead, she hopes to build on the unexpected success she has enjoyed over the last two weeks.