The President of the Football Association of Thailand addressed the players on Monday ahead of this Saturday’s friendly with China in Bangkok.

Somyot told the squad he hoped to see them make a breakthrough at the competition, which takes place in the United Arab Emirates from January 5 to February 1.

“I have never asked our team to be the best in Asia but since Thailand have never progressed into the round of 16 in the Asian Cup, I wish to see that happen this time,” Somyot said during the meeting at the FAT headquarters in Hua Mark.

Kawin Thamsatchanan (left)

Thailand have been drawn in Group A along with the hosts, India and Bahrain. The top two in each of the six groups, plus the four best third-placed teams, will advance to the round of 16.

The “War Elephants” did once finish third, in 1972, but back then only six nations competed. Since then the Asian Cup has grown constantly, becoming a group-stage format in the early 1980s and now consisting of 24 teams.

Before then, however, the team’s priority will be Saturday’s friendly with China at the Rajamangala National Stadium.

The game will serve as preparation for both the Asian Cup and the AFF Suzuki Cup in November.

“This will be one of our most important matches as we are playing against a respectable team with higher FIFA ranking [China is world-ranked 73],” said national coach Milovan Rajevac. Thailand is No 122.

Cheryl Chappuis (middle) 

“As we all know China have invested a lot as they try to become a strong football country,” Rajevac added, “but we have our quality and we have to prove ourselves.

“This will be additional motivation to try our best to win this match.”

The Serbian advised his players to follow the World Cup finals in Russia to learn as much as possible about modern football and also ordered them to stay fit for the two Cup tournaments.

“I want you to take a good care of yourselves to maintain a good level of performance, try to stay fit and perform well. Everything should be OK,” he said.

Well-known internationals such as Chanathip Songkrasin, Kawin Thamsatchanan and Teerasil Dangda are in the 26-man squad, five of whom had not yet returned home form their overseas clubs and missed yesterday’s get-together.

Among the new faces are midfielders Nopphon Ponkam, of Police BEC Tero, and Buriram United’s Sasalak Haiprakhon.

The team are training at the Le Meridien Suvarnabhumi from now until June 5.

Wawrinka, who lost to Rafael Nadal in last year’s final and won the 2015 title, was beaten in a five-set thriller 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 by the Spanish world number 67 on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

The 33-year-old has been plagued by a knee injury and arrived at Roland Garros having won just one match on clay in Geneva last week, his first event in three months.

The defeat means that the three-time Grand Slam champion will slip from 30th in the world to outside the top 250 after the tournament, having failed to defend the ranking points he gained in 2017.

“There is no frustration (at rankings slip). It’s just tough,” said Wawrinka.

“But again, I knew from the beginning that it will take a long, a lot of time to get back. I knew that from the surgery that it will take a year at least to get where I want to be.”

There were worrying signs for his fans when he pulled up and called for a medical timeout after just six games, but he played down fears he had caused further damage to his already troublesome left knee.

“My knee is good. I blocked something else at the beginning of the first set, and that’s why I had to ask,” he said.

The 23rd seed found his rhythm from nowhere after a poor first set, crunching two massive forehands to break for a 3-1 lead in the second.

A fired-up Wawrinka duly levelled the match, and saved a break point to serve out the third set after breaking in the opening game, as 34-year-old Garcia-Lopez threw his racket to the ground in disgust.

The match looked to be all but over when Wawrinka broke in game five of the fourth set, but he became ragged and Garcia-Lopez forced a decider by edging a tie-break.

Wawrinka’s form totally deserted him in the fifth set, and Garcia-Lopez comfortably wrapped up victory.

– Djokovic eases through –

Serbian star Djokovic had little trouble in reaching round two, though, seeing off Brazilian world number 134 Rogerio Dutra Silva 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

The 12-time Grand Slam champion dropped serve three times and will have to markedly improve to challenge Rafael Nadal in the latter stages of the tournament, but he was still far too good for Dutra Silva on Court Philippe Chatrier.

“It was good to start this year with a win. I wasn’t at my best, he played with a lot of spin. I didn’t play very well, but I won in three sets,” said the 20th seed, who will next face David Ferrer or Jaume Munar.

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez

Former world number one Victoria Azarenka’s return to Grand Slam tennis lasted just two sets as the Belarusian slumped to a 7-5, 7-5 loss to Katerina Siniakova.

Azarenka, who missed much of last season after being embroiled in a custody battle over her son, was broken to love in the 12th games of each set to be dumped out by the Czech world number 57.

It was Azarenka’s first Grand Slam match since losing to Simona Halep in the Wimbledon fourth round last July, but she still believes she can return to the top of the game.

“No doubt about it. Maybe not today, but no doubt about it,” the now-world number 82 insisted.

Petra Kvitova also found life hard, but the two-time Wimbledon champion fought back from a set down to beat Paraguay’s Veronica Cepede Royg 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 on Court Philippe Chatrier.

The 28-year-old Kvitova is one of the favourites to win a maiden Roland Garros title after winning four titles this season, including on clay in Prague and Madrid.

“I’ve won 12 matches straight on clay, but I’m still a long way from Rafa,” she said in reference to Rafael Nadal’s upcoming bid for an 11th men’s singles crown.

Lee, who took a two-shot lead into the final round, fired a four-under par 68 for a 16-under par total of 272.

A three-putt bogey at 17 had dropped her into a tie for the lead with Kim, who had capped her 67 with a tap-in birdie at the last for a 15-under total of 273.

At Travis Pointe’s par-five 18th, Lee’s second shot landed just right of the green. She chipped to within three feet and drained the putt for her fourth LPGA victory and her first since 2016.

“I’ve been playing pretty solid the whole year,” said Lee, whose five prior top-10 finishes in 2018 included a playoff loss to Lydia Ko in San Francisco in April.

“It’s nice to have a win before the Open,” added Lee, already looking ahead to the US Women’s Open that starts Thursday in Shoal Creek in Alabama.

“Next week is going to be a totally different week, so I’ll just try my best. I know I’m hitting it pretty solid, I’m putting solid, so hopefully I’ll have a good week.”

Lee had maintained her two-shot lead through the first nine holes, picking up birdies at three of her first five holes as she produced a string of straight drives and precision iron shots.

Kim, one-under for the day through nine, gained steam with four birdies in five holes from the 10th through the 14th.

She was 14-under after a bogey at 15 but put the pressure on Lee with her closing birdie, settling for solo second one stroke in front of Thailand’s Moriya Jutanugarn who carded a seven-under 65.

Australian Su Oh carded a 68 and American Lindy Duncan a 69 to share fourth on 275.

Stacy Lewis, who is expecting her first child in November, started the day with a share of second but settled for a one-under 71 that left her equal seventh on 277 alongside Ariya Jutanugarn and Danielle Kang.

The Latvian served 13 double faults and made 48 unforced errors in an error-strewn display as she slumped to a shock 7-5, 6-3 loss to little-known Ukrainian Kateryna Kozlova on Philippe Chatrier Court.

The 20-year-old’s performance was the total opposite of the scintillating attacking tennis that took her to the title 12 months ago.

“I think it was a terrible day at the office today for me,” Ostapenko said.

“I mean, in general I played maybe like 20 percent of what I can play. Made like 50 unforced errors and so many double faults. Like couldn’t serve today.

“Everything together just brought me a really bad result.”

The fifth seed is only the sixth woman in the Open era to lose in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament as defending champion, after Steffi Graf at Wimbledon in 1994, Jennifer Capriati (2003 Australian Open), Anastasia Myskina (2005 French Open), Svetlana Kuznetsova (2005 US Open) and Angelique Kerber (2017 US Open).

Ostapenko said that she was hampered by a leg injury suffered during her quarter-final defeat by Maria Sharapova in Rome last week, and by a personal matter earlier on Sunday.

“It’s more personal, but, just in general… Just woke up, you’re like, your mood was not amazing, you just woke up and kind of some things went wrong, and then you are kind of pissed off, in the practice you’re pissed off,” she said.

“And then you go to the match and try to be positive, but everything goes not your way, and you still try to be positive, but then you lose the match and of course you cannot be positive anymore.”

The French Open is the only Grand Slam event that begins on a Sunday, and Ostapenko felt that a later start would have helped her regain full fitness in time.

“I think if I was scheduled on Tuesday, I think Monday or Tuesday, at least one extra day would help me a lot, but unfortunately yesterday I didn’t feel that I was in a great form.”

– The opponent ‘didn’t matter’ –

Kozlova 

It was a third defeat in as many meetings with world number 66 Kozlova for Ostapenko, after previous losses at S-Hertogenbosch in 2016 and at an ITF event in Italy two years before.

But she insisted that her form was so poor that she would have lost no matter who she played.

“Any player who could hit like five shots back I think probably could beat me today because I didn’t really play well and didn’t really matter who was on the other side, because she was just waiting for me to miss,” bemoaned the Latvian.

For Kozlova, this was the biggest win of her career, coming over two months since she feared she might need knee surgery after suffering an injury in Indian Wells qualifying in March.

She only returned to the court earlier this week in Nuremberg, and also needed medical attention after struggling with blisters on Sunday.

“Sometimes I have some blisters on the foot and I have this problem. And, yeah, it was ugly and disturbing me a lot,” said Kozlova.

“But after medical time-out, yeah, the physio did a good tape. It helped me to survive.”

Kozlova next faces either former world number one Victoria Azarenka or Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic for a place in the last 32.

It was their 10th in a biennial tournament they won in 1982, 1986, 1988, 1990 and between 2004 – 2012 (biennial) before Japan, and then Denmark, deposed them in 2014 and 2016.

Japan drew first blood when Kento Momota stamped his authority over Rio Olympic Games gold medalist and 2014-15 world champion Chen Long 21-9 21-18, his second win over the world No 4 after beating him in the Asian Championships in Wuhan, China, last month.

World Championships men’s doubles winners and world no 3 pairing Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan put China back on track as they easily picked off Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko 21-10 21-18.

China took the lead when 2018 All England winner Shi Yuqi, the world No 3, survived a late fightback from the 14th-ranked Kento Nishimoto to win 21-12 21-17.

Then two-time Asian Championships winners Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen clinched the overall victory, saving two match points at 20-19 down to beat Keigo Sonoda and Yuta Watanabe 17-21 21-19 22-20 in a thrilling battle that lasted 70 minutes.

With the victory, the fifth rubber between former world No 1 and Olympic gold medalist Lin Dan and Kanta Tsuneyama was cancelled.

Japan will still return home with some pride after the women’s side beat Thailand 3-0 for their sixth Uber Cup win on Saturday.

Lee, who turns 22 on Sunday, held a two-stroke heading into the final round at Ann Arbor, Michigan.

She’s been knocking on the door all season, with her five top-10 LPGA finishes including a playoff loss to Lydia Ko in San Francisco in April.

Lee nabbed her fourth birdie of the day at Travis Pointe’s par-five 18th to build a 12-under par total of 204.

Last week’s Volvik Championship winner Ariya Jutanugarn shot a 70 for a total 8 under, four off the pace.

American Stacy Lewis, expecting her first child later this year, fired a 67 to join a group sharing second on 206. She was joined by South Korea’s Kim In-kyung, who also posted a 67, and by England’s Jodi Ewart Shadoff and American Lindy Duncan, who both signed for 69s.

“I had a pretty solid day today, made no bogeys,” said Lee, who is seeking a fourth LPGA title and her first since 2016. She finished second in this event by a stroke last year.

Although play was halted for more than two hours by rain, Lee said the greens firmed up by the time she finished her round.

“I think just keeping it in play was pretty important today,” she said.

Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand 

Lewis, seeking her first win since the Portland Classic last August, said she didn’t hit the ball well, but made some solid up-and-downs to get on a “nice little run.”

“This golf course, you can shoot a number,” said Lewis, who birdied four of her last five holes. “You can shoot six- or seven-under, but you can also play pretty good and shoot even par.

“So you’ve just got to get runs like I did there at the end of the day and just keep hanging around and post a number and see what happens.”

Lewis admitted she was tired after the stop-and-start day, but said she didn’t think her pregnancy prevented her from being competitive.

“The little one was telling me it’s dinner time right now, but other than that I feel pretty good,” she said. “Excited to be in the hunt.”

Japanese 19-year-old Nasa Hataoka, who held a one-stroke overnight lead over Lee, made a promising start with a birdie at the second, then had five bogeys before back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15 to post a two-over 74.

That left her tied for 15th, five shots off the pace.

 2014 Rio Games gold medalist Chen Long, 2012 London Games champion Lin Dan and one of China’s 2016 doubles winners, Zhan Nan, look likely to take home their 10th Cup title after previous successes in 1982, 1986, 1988, 1990 and from 2004-2012.

China’s 3-1 semi-final win over Indonesia returned them to the final for the first time since 2012.

World No 5 Chen Long won the first point by beating Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 22-20 21-16  before 13-time champions Indonesia hit back , Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo ousting Liu Cheng and Zhan Nan 12-21 21-17 21-15.

However the Indonesian revolution last briefly as China won the next two rubbers –

2014 Youth Olympic winner Shi Yuqi beat 2017 SEA Games gold medalist Jonatan Christie 18-21 21-12 21-15 before two-time reigning Asian Championships winners  Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen beat Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-17 18-21 21-12.

Chen, 29, dropped only one game throughout the tournament and is a part of the Chinese Thomas Cup winning team in 2010-12. The Chinese No 1 who pointed Thai fruits as ones of his favourite things here will look for a revenge over Japanese ace Kento Momota, the 12th ranked who beat him for the April’s Asian Championships title in Wuhan.

World No 4 Liu and Zhan just beat world No 6 and Japanese No 1 doubles team Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda for the gold medal in Wuhan while Chinese great Lin Dan, No 9 in the world, shall summon all experience to win the last point for China (should a decisive match is required) due to his most outstanding achievements among all players with wins from all major events including six All England, five World Championships and two Olympic titles.

However Japan won’t make it easy for China as when they won their maiden Cup title in 2014, they blanked China 3-0 in the semi-finals.

Japan ruined Denmark’s title defence campaign late on Friday’s night with a 3-2 win.

Kento upset world No 1 Viktor Axelsen 21-17 21-9 before Mathias Boe and Mads Conrad-Petersen beat Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda 21-18 21-12 for one all.

World No 14 Kenta Nishimoto beat Hans-Kristian Vittinghus 21-19 21-12 to  take Japan to  a 2-1 lead before Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen beat Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko 17-21 21-16 21-15 to level the tie.

In the end the 55-ranked Kanta Tsuneyama sealed the victory for Nippon with an upset win over former world No 2 and former European Championships winner Jan O Jorgensen 21-18 21-11.

Bale’s jaw-dropping overhead kick in the 64th minute put Real 2-1 up moments after his introduction, following a dramatic start to the second half in which Karim Benzema gave Real the lead as a result of a Loris Karius howler.

Sadio Mane had briefly restored parity, but Bale put Real in front again and then sealed the triumph late on with a long-range strike that the unfortunate Karius could only punch into the net.

Jurgen Klopp’s and Liverpool’s own evening was marred by the loss of a distraught Mohamed Salah to injury in the first half, the Egyptian coming off half an hour in having damaged his shoulder.

This was not to be Salah’s night, with Real allowing Zinedine Zidane to become the first coach ever to win the Champions League three years in a row.

“With a team like this we can go far, but to win three of them, it’s something crazy,” Zidane said.

Madrid are the first team to achieve that feat since Bayern Munich in 1976. This is their fourth title in five years, and their 13th overall.

Cristiano Ronaldo has now won five in his great career, although he later cast a cloud over the night by hinting that he could soon leave the club, saying: “It was very nice to be at Real Madrid.”

However, it was Bale’s evening, and when asked if it was the best goal he had ever scored, he said: “I’d have to say it is, on the biggest stage in world football to score a goal like that is a dream come true.”

But Bale has not been a regular in the Real team this season and he admitted he will now consider his future in the weeks ahead.

“I feel I should be playing every week and if that’s not the case here it’s something I need to consider. We will sit down in the summer and try to resolve things.”

The Welshman had been tipped to feature in the starting line-up but was left out for Isco — just as he had been in the final against Juventus last year — before making an emphatic impact as a substitute.

Gareth Bale

– Salah’s tears –

For Liverpool, the game will be remembered for the disaster that befell goalkeeper Karius in the second half, and for Salah’s tears as he departed the pitch at the NSC Olympiyskyi.

The Egyptian hurt his left shoulder as he went down in a challenge with Sergio Ramos in the 25th minute.

Five minutes later he made way for Adam Lallana, and his presence at the World Cup is now in doubt.

“We wanted everything and got nothing. We lost an important player and probably Egypt lost for the World Cup an important player,” Klopp said.

Liverpool’s Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah lays on the pitch following injury 

Salah’s injury, and that which forced Real’s Dani Carvajal off before the break, temporarily took the sting out of the game after an enthralling start, with Liverpool on top.

After Salah departed, Real sensed their chance. They even had the ball in the net in the 43rd minute, only to be denied by a marginal offside call.

Ronaldo’s header from Isco’s cross was parried by Karius, and Benzema turned in the loose ball, but the flag cut short his celebrations.

If that was a let-off for Liverpool, they were their own worst enemies at the start of the second half.

– Careless Karius –

Isco struck the bar after Lallana diverted the ball into his path, before Benzema opened the scoring in the 51st minute.

It was a moment of unbelievable carelessness from Karius, who attempted to roll the ball out to the nearest red shirt only for Benzema to stick out a leg and send it trickling into the net.

Klopp’s side really could have let their heads drop, and yet they were soon back level, Mane turning the ball in after Dejan Lovren headed down James Milner’s corner.

But their renewed hope was crushed upon the introduction of Bale.

The Welshman had been on the field barely two minutes when he met Marcelo’s cross from the left with an improbable leap, back to goal, 15 yards out, to send an overhead kick on his left foot arcing over Karius and in.

Such a strike deserved to be the winner, although it was his long-range shot that beat the embarrassed Karius in the 83rd minute that made sure of the victory.

Mane hit the post for Liverpool in between Bale’s strikes, but they will have to wait a while yet before winning their sixth European Cup.

Top seeds Japan tamed hosts Thailand 3-0 to claim their first Uber Cup victory since 1981 in front of a near-full house at the Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani on Saturday.

The match was preceded by the rare scene of badminton fans queueing for tickets to Thailand’s first appearance in the final. Sadly, their hopes of witnessing an historic victory did not materialise.

Japan, featuring elite players such as world No 2 Akane Yamaguchi, current world champion Nozomi Okuhara and world No 2 doubles player Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota were too tough a nut to crack. They reeled off the three rubbers they needed in just over three hours for their sixth Uber Cup victory.

The Japanese domination started with Yamaguchi showing masterclass form to beat Thai ace Ratchanok Intanon 21-15 21-19.

Ratchanok Intanon

“I was happy to win this point not because I beat Ratchanok but because I won the first point for Japan. I remained focused in a difficult match against a tough player,” said Akane, who avenged her loss to Ratchanok in the Malaysian Masters semi-finals in January.

Former world No 1 Ratchanok admitted she had not been at her best.

“I was surprised by how she counter-attacked with my game. The momentum kept switching all the time but in the end she was the better player on crucial points,” said Ratchanok, who will play two events in Malaysia and Indonesia before the Thailand Open in July.

Thailand later opted to pair Jongkolphan Kititharakul with Puttita Supajirakul instead of Jongkolphnan’s  normal partner Rawinda Prajongjai, hoping to confuse Asian Championships winners and world No 2 Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota.

The tactic worked at the beginning but once the Japanese duo found their momentum, they never looked back and eased home  21-18 21- 12.

“At the beginning they seemed to have a problem with our team as they are more familiar with me and Rawinda but they finally caught up with us and never allowed us to play our game. We already tried everything,” said Jongkolphan.

Japanese team

Fukushima, who won the World Championships silver medal with Hirato last year in Glasgow, said: “We felt relieved after Yamaguchi won the first point. We didn’t start well but after we reached the first 11 points first, we got into our groove.”

World No 11 Nitchaon Jindapol then took to the court in the hope of reversing the tide but world No 9 Okuhara proved stronger and faster in all aspects, subdued the Thai No 2  21-12 21-9.

“Even though we lost, to be standing on the podium as the runners-up for the first time is a huge experience. Beating a powerful team like China in the semi-finals will always stay in my memory,” said Nitchaon.

Nitchaon Jindapol 

While Thailand coach Rexy Mainaky was content with the team’s maiden Uber Cup final appearance he said he would need to study the videos and analyse where the team could do even better in future.

“They have shown they are mentally stronger but we need to work harder on the physical part,” the Indonesian said. “We need to show consistency in order to be at the same level as the top teams like China, Japan, Indonesia and Denmark.”

Japan’s coach, the South Korean Park Joo Bong, praised his players’ determination.

“At the beginning I was concerned about the support from the home fans but my players proved they were really focused and determined to win,” he said.