Never give opponents an opening, Thai taekwondo champ says

"Tennis" carried the burden of physical pain and postponed surgery to compete in her final Asian Games.

Now, almost everyone in Thailand knows that she is the world's best female taekwondo athlete in her weight category. However, when she was newly famous, many were confused about her sport. They wondered if she fought taekwondo or played tennis because her father, a sports enthusiast, nicknamed her after the game.

For her journey to the Asian Games gold medal, Tennis defeated Tamang Anjali from Nepal 2-0 (scores: 12-0, 10-0) in the Round of 16.

In the quarterfinals, she defeated Jhuang Tien Yu from Taiwan 2-0 (6-1 and 11-7).

In the semifinals, she defeated Mannopova Madinabonu from Uzbekistan 2-0 (2-1 and 8-7).

In the championship round, Tennis almost lost but came back to win 2-1 (scores: 7-6, 1-2, and 12-9), securing the gold medal despite ligament injuries.

Amidst the smiles of winning the gold medal, tears mixed with the pain she had to endure. She had been battling injuries since before the Asian Games began in order to compete.

Tennis had persistent pain in her posterior cruciate ligament. Treatment for full recovery would have involved surgery, which required a lengthy six-month recovery period. So, she bit the bullet and competed in the Asian Games despite her injury.

Before her triumphant journey, Tennis announced that she would retire from sports after the 2024 Olympics.

She is the most successful Thai taekwondo athlete in history.

Aged 26 and hailing from Surat Thani, Tennis is currently Thailand's top-ranked athlete. She has swept championships in all major tournaments, including the Olympics, World Championships, Grand Prix events, the Asian Games, and the SEA Games.

Tennis is the only Thai taekwondo athlete to win two World Championships in two different weight categories. She first claimed the title in the under-46 kilogramme category in 2015 and then, after stepping up to the under-49kg category, reached the pinnacle by becoming world No. 1 in January 2018. She repeated her world championship victory in 2019 in the under-49kg category.

She held a long-standing undefeated record in the under-49kg category and finally won the gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Tennis has won gold medals four times in a row at the SEA Games. At the Asian Games, she competed for the first time in Incheon, South Korea in 2014 when she was in the under-46kg category and won a bronze medal. Then, at the 18th Asian Games in Indonesia, she moved up to the under-49kg category and brought home the gold medal.

She has trained tirelessly for 20 years to become the world’s best, but training altered the shape of her feet.

Her misshapen feet were the result of the intense and rigorous training she underwent from a very young age. She dedicated her childhood to training to overcome every limitation, practising for six to seven hours a day, and even longer before competitions.

No matter how much pain she experienced during competitions, training, or dealing with personal issues, she had to endure it because taking a break would mean giving her opponents an opening to catch up.

"I never considered myself better than anyone else. World rankings have no meaning; everyone has an equal chance of winning and losing. But when we reach this level, it's certain that everyone is targeting you and wants to defeat you," she explained.

"What I can do is endure more than others. Endurance here means enduring the fatigue from competitions, training, or personal problems that sometimes creep in. Even if we want to take a break, I can't because resting at any time means leaving an opening for our competitors," Tennis said.