Frequently sportsmen and women are remembered for all of the wrong reasons and this could well prove to be the case with Thailand tennis player Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul.
Trongcharoenchaikul was playing in the Junior Wimbledon tournament and not surprisingly his name had many scratching their heads although the umpire in charge of his first match against France’s Johan Sebastien had no problems with the pronunciation, admitting later that he had umpired him previously and that he had a quick pronunciation refresher course prior to the match.
Whereas the umpire proved that he could cope the same could not be said of the Wimbledon scoreboard. It ran out of space after 12 letters.
With a surname nineteen letters in length it was not surprising that the Thai teenager was asked how long it took him to sign autographs. His answer was simple. “I just sign my first name.”
No doubt he will hope that his career is at least as long as his surname, commentators may however feel differently.
