The Ratiwatana twins, Sonchat and Sanchai’s achievements on the Challenger Tour have earned them the sobriquet ‘the Challenger Bryans’.
The Thai duo has won a record 46 Challenger titles, and bagged a title every year since 2003.
Sonchat and Sanchai became the first doubles team to win 40 Challenger doubles titles when it triumphed in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 2016.
“It feels great to create some record,” said Sonchat, the older of the two. “(We are) looking to step up and win an ATP event.”
Sonchat admitted the quality of opposition in World Tour events was quite strong. But, winning two ATP Tour titles in Bangkok (’07) and Chennai (’08) was not easy.
“Winning two is not easy. For us it has been a long time really since we won anything on the World Tour,” admitted Sonchat.
Last year, the two lost in the first round of all the five ATP tournaments they participated in. Sonchat believes it is still possible to win.
“We need more confidence and a little bit of luck,” he said.
At 36 years, the twins know time is running out as far as playing a World Tour event is concerned. “We are almost at the end of our careers. If we cannot make a breakthrough in one or two years we have to stop,” said Sonchat.
Is the pair looking at 50 Challenger titles as a landmark? “Hopefully, yes,” said Sanchai.
“We’ll try to win as many Challengers as we can and improve our rankings to play in ATP events. We need 4-5 Challengers to improve our rankings,” he said.
