Paradorn wins gold for Thailand

Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan continued his recent purple patch of form by beating South Korean Lee Hyung-taik 7-6, 6-4 to win tennis gold for Thailand at the Asian Games on Saturday.

Top seed Paradorn, who arrived in Pusan on a high after defeating world number Lleyton Hewitt en route to the semi-finals of the Japan Open, took an error-strewn first set after clinching the tie-break 7-3.

The world number 28 quickly raced into a 3-0 lead in the second set, only to be pegged back to 4-4 by the second-seeded Lee, backed by a partisan crowd at Gumjong Tennis Stadium.

But Paradorn, who became the first Asian player to win an ATP tour singles title since India's Leander Paes in 1996 when he won in Long Island in August, had too much experience for his 84th-ranked opponent.

Apparently disturbed by the noise from the crowd, the 23-year-old squandered his first two match points in the 10th game of the second set as Lee served to stay in the match.

But Paradorn made no mistake on his third match point, wrapping up proceedings in just under two hours when a powerful return of serve set up a forehand passing shot that landed just inside the baseline.

"The crowd kept making a noise when I was about to play a shot, which was distracting," said Paradorn, who won doubles gold with elder brother Naratorn at the 1998 Games in Bangkok.

"It feels great to win another gold this time. Hopefully now I can keep playing well and get into the top 20 by the end of the year."

Beaten semi-finalists Takao Suzuki of Japan and Oleg Ogorodov of Uzbekistan took bronze.

Paradorn shocked Hewitt 6-4, 6-3 in the quarter-finals of the Japan Open but was beaten in two tie-breaks sets by Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark in the semi-final in Tokyo last weekend.

His victory in Pusan raised Thai spirits after Tamarine Tanasugarn was demolished in straight sets by Iroda Tulyaganova in the women's final on Friday.