......In the area close to Silver Lakes and Phoenix golf course Thailand’s top tennis players are buying into a little peace and quiet.

Danai Udomchoke is a man on the go. As Thailand’s No 1 tennis player he finds himself travelling all over the world in pursuit of trophies and on-court success, writes John Davids.
So perhaps it’s not surprising that, when he’s not playing, he is keen to have a tranquil base; somewhere he can chill out and spend a little time with his family.
And he has found it here, close to Pattaya, in an intimate eight-unit development called The Hills Estate.
The project lies off the 331 highway in the area around Phoenix golf course. To try to describe too closely where it is might jeopardise the very privacy that Danai and others at The Hills have bought into.
The others I refer to are:
l Fellow top tennis star Paradorn Srichaphan and his wife, Natalie, a former Miss Universe. Just a tennis court separates their recently completed house from Danai’s.
l Entrepreneur and next door neighbour Sonny Souvannavong who is the driving force behind the building of the estate. We featured Sonny in our November 2008 edition.
l To the other side of Danai’s property a house is being completed for Canadian Patrick Dean. Patrick owns fitness centres called Cascade, in Bangkok and Phuket (Phuket Royal Marina) and a top Bangkok restaurant, Aldos (on top of the Ascott Tower on Sathorn Road). Another of his companies is Seara which makes tennis courts and sells other fitness equipment. The tennis court for the complex is on his plot but will be for the use of everyone. Some of the special impact-reducing (joint saving) materials being used in the court’s construction had been donated to Paradorn.
l Another of Danai’s tennis playing friends, Taiwan’s Jimmy Wong, will have a house opposite Patrick’s, but construction is yet to start on this and the three others planned for the estate.

Other plots
Sonny told me he is in discussions about the ownership of the other three plots but did not give any indications whether the list of tennis professionals might be added to.
For Danai, Sonny’s ideas about how the estate should be set out are right on the mark.
“Sonny is my friend,” said Danai. “I used to stay with him when he had a house nearer to Phoenix golf course. During one visit he showed me the land where our houses are now built and then we made the plan to have our own village.”
I call Danai’s property a house, but probably a collection of small houses might be more accurate as just about every room on Danai’s plot is a separate building under its own roof. The picture on the following page might give a better idea of what I’m trying
to describe.
“I’m very happy with Sonny’s great ideas,” he said when I asked him if he had made any special requests in the building on his three-bedroomed home.

Another pool
“I didn’t want to change anything although I might add another pool on the lowest level,” he added. The accommodation is arranged on several levels on the side of the hill looking down into a valley.
Danai has a busy lifestyle. I spoke to him in early May and a few days later he was due to fly to Korea for as tournament and then on to Uzbekistan before two weeks in America.
From America he is due to fly this month to the UK in a bid to qualify for Wimbledon. To be successful he will have to win three rounds before he can feature in the main draw.

No planning
“I will only know who my opponents will be the day before I play them in the qualifying at Roehampton. So there is no chance to plan anything,” said Danai.
After a possible Wimbledon appearance there is Davis Cup action then he will have another of the tennis majors, the US Open, in his sights.
So how often is Danai able to visit The Hills, I asked.
“I’m only in Thailand about five months of the year and when I’m here I do most of my training in Bangkok (his birthplace). This is a sort of weekend home for me but, after I retire from tennis, I plan to be here more often,” he replied.
“I love it here on the mountain. Everything is perfect. It’s only an hour and 20 minutes from the airport and in Pattaya you have all the shops and the beaches. My family visits often even when I cannot be here.”
Danai is 28 and, being realistic, he feels he probably has three of four more years of playing top flight tennis left before he quits.
After that he hopes to stay in the game – possibly coaching young Thai players.

World rankings
“I would love to see three or four Thai players in the Top 100,” said Danai. His own highest ranking was 77th which he achieved after he reached the third round of the Australian Open two years ago before going out to current world No 3 Novak Djokovic. At the time of writing Danai has slipped back to 144 following injuries to both wrist and knee.
Danai is passionate about playing for his country and has won gold for Thailand in the ASEAN Games in Doha. This year his triumphed in both his singles matches against Australia in a Davis Cup tie but the Aussies triumphed 3-2 in the match overall. One can only speculate what might have been the result had Danai’s neighbour Paradorn (at one time No 9 in the world) been fit to compete in the other singles matches.
“Paradorn is hoping to return to action in time for the Thai Open (late September),” said Danai.

Challenge match?
I suggested that maybe he could stage a challenge match against Paradorn on the court that separates their homes for the “title” King of The Hills.
He replied: “Maybe we will stage some kind of exhibition match here. That could be great fun.” Ω

Why Danai took up tenis?

It’s fair to say that Danai’s route into tennis was not a conventional one – he started playing in a bid to cure an asthma problem encountered as a youth.
“I had to be kept in an oxygen tent for two weeks and almost died,” Danai said.
When he recovered the doctor suggested that he take up a sport to improve his breathing.
“I swam for a year but did not like it,” he said. “My grandmother played tennis and she introduced me to the game.
“After playing for a while the coach went to my father and told him he thought I had a real talent.”
And so Danai went from being very unfit to super-fit – something he needs to be for the modern tennis game.
“Nowadays you have to be stronger and smarter when playing tennis,” said Danai.
His height – 5ft 8 in – puts him at something of a disadvantage when up against 6ft-plus opponents. But he compensates by having great stamina and the ability to play out long rallies.
“I have to be stronger than the others,” he said. “My recent Davis Cup match against Lleyton Hewitt lasted 4.5 hours. He was ‘dead’ in the final set which helped me to go on to win.”
Not bad for a man who at one time in his youth struggled to even catch his breath. Ω