Junior During her junior career, her expenses were provided by her father, Virachai Tanasugarn, a lawyer who was once a Thai basketball player and who inspired Tanasugarn to become a professional tennis player. At 17, she reached the Junior Grand Slam final at Wimbledon in 1995 with a win over
Anna Kournikova in the semifinal, but lost to Poland's
Aleksandra Olsza in the final, in straight sets.
1994–1999 Tanasugarn turned pro in 1994, but made her
WTA Tour debut in the 1993
Pattaya Open, in which she lost to Australian
Rennae Stubbs. The following year, she made the second round in the same tournament by beating world No. 44,
Marianne Werdel Witmeyer, in the first round. In 1995, Tanasugarn started participating in Grand Slams, but did not make it beyond the qualifying rounds. In 1996, Tanasugarn played her first
WTA final at the
Pattaya Open, in which she lost to
Ruxandra Dragomir. In 1997, she reached the third round of the
Australian Open, at
Wimbledon and the
US Open, beating
Chanda Rubin in the first round. She reached a semifinal at
Hobart and ended the year with a No. 46 ranking. At
Wimbledon, Tanasugarn had an arm injury and lost to
Arantxa Parra Santonja in the first round. She played the mixed-doubles event for the first time, partnering with
Rogier Wassen, but she scratched in the second round because of her injury. Tanasugarn came back after her arm injury at the
US Open, but lost to
Anastasija Sevastova in the first round.
2010–2015 Tanasugarn started the year by playing at the
Australian Open. She won her first Grand Slam first-round match in five years, with a 6–1, 7–6 victory over
Sesil Karatantcheva, but lost to
Kim Clijsters in the second round. At the
Pattaya Open, Tanasugarn worked her way past
Alla Kudryavtseva, second seed
Sabine Lisicki,
Anna Chakvetadze, and Sesil Karatantcheva. She finally lost to top seed and defending champion, Vera Zvonareva, in a dramatic final. Tanasugarn and her New Zealand partner Marina Erakovic won the
Pattaya Open doubles title, beating Anna Chakvetadze and
Ksenia Pervak, giving Tanasugarn a successful defence of her homeland doubles title. Her next scheduled tournament was the
Malaysian Open, where she lost to seventh seed
Magdaléna Rybáriková in the first round. At the American fortnight tours, she entered the main draw in
Indian Wells as a
lucky loser and advanced into the second round, before losing to 19th seed
Aravane Rezaï. In Miami, she lost to
Pauline Parmentier in the final qualifying round. She also played several ITF tournaments in April, reaching the finals in Johannesburg. After the middle of April, Tanasugarn did not play any tournaments and withdrew in
Strasbourg due to an elbow injury. At
Roland-Garros, she lost to Daniela Hantuchová in the first round. Tanasugarn began playing her favourite surface, grass, at the
Birmingham Classic, surviving into the second round against
Sania Mirza, after Mirza failed to serve out the match at 5–4 and 30–0. She lost to Yanina Wickmayer in the next round, in straight sets. She then competed at
Rosmalen, but was defeated in the first round. Tanasugarn also suffered a first-round loss at
Wimbledon and missed the US Open due to injuries. She won her fourth WTA title at
Osaka, defeating
Marion Bartoli en route, and Kimiko Date-Krumm in the final. Despite losing in qualifying stages of 2011 Wimbledon with her partner Marina Erakovic, the doubles team received a lucky loser berth into the main draw and advanced to the semifinals with a 4–6, 7–6, 13–11 victory over third seeds Lisa Raymond and
Liezel Huber. It was the first time that Tanasugarn (as well as Erakovic) had advanced to the semifinals of a Grand Slam event in any capacity. In late March 2015, Tanasugarn defeated
Sofia Shapatava in the first qualifying round of the
Open GdF Suez; this would be the final singles win of her professional career. In late April, she lost to
Kristýna Plíšková in the first round of the
Kangaroo Cup; this would turn out to be the final singles match of her career.
2016–2020: retirement & short comeback in doubles She announced her retirement from professional tennis in June 2016. Beginning in December 2018, Tanasugarn played doubles in small ITF tournaments around Thailand and nearby areas, winning the final of the $25k Hua Hin tournament in November 2019, partnering
Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove. Since February 2020, she has been inactive again. ==Performance timelines==