Thai No 1 Tamarine Tanasugarn battled through injury and team-mate Suchanan Viraprasert played superbly to spearhead Thailand to a 4-1 win over Slovakia and capture a spot in next year’s Fed Cup World Group II tournament.

The play-offs ended in favour of Thailand yesterday after a drawn first day at the Bangkok University Rangsit Campus. The Kingdom’s team wrapped up the tie yesterday with two wins in the singles by Tamarine and Suchanan and a victory in the doubles.

Despite a sprained left ankle, Tamarine put the pain behind her and relied on her experience to outclass teenager Magdalena Rybarikova, a replacement for Henrieta Nagyova who withdrew with a knee injury. Tamarine won 6-1 6-2 in only 49 minutes to give Thailand the upper-hand at 2-1.

Then “Super” Suchanan lived up to the crowd’s expectations by upsetting an exhausted Lubomira Kurhajcova 6-4 6-2 to propel her team to victory and make the final doubles a dead rubber. In any case, Thailand’s Napaporn Tongsalee and Montinee Tangphong beat Rybarikova and Dominika Cibulkova 3-6 6-1 7-5.

The win keeps Thailand in the elite Group II competition next year, while Slovakia will be relegated to the qualifying zone.

“We won because our players are strongly determined to win. But part of this victory was because Slovakia lacked their main players,’’ said Thai captain Vittaya Samrej, who has been very good at laying out a game plan for his team.

Tamarine sustained an injured left angle on Saturday during her match against Kurhajcova and looked uncomfortable on court yesterday.

But it was her years of experience in the circuit that saved the day, plus endless errors that crept into Rybarikova’s game.

“I thought I was okay until the second set. I felt pain but luckily my opponent was still young and had less experience. She didn’t play well on crucial points,’’ said Tamarine, who might take a few weeks off from the US tour to recover from her injury.

“I need to wrap up my ankle and take a few weeks off. There are so many injuries right now and I don’t want to aggravate them,’’ added Tamarine, who also has an injured knee.

“I’m glad we can win for our country again and maintain our place in Group II. We have to thank Suchanan for wrapping up the win so it didn’t go to the doubles.’’

Suchanan deserves a lot of credit for her persistent and clever play which prevented the tie from going into the decisive rubber where Thailand may have had a disadvantage.

Ranked only 243 in the world, Suchanan has always played her best tennis in the Fed Cup – she has lost only one match from nine in the past two years.

“I was a little nervous going into the match but I knew I had a little bit of an advantage because she played a tough match with Tamarine on Saturday,’’ said Suchanan, who fought back from 2-4 down in the first set.

“So I did what the captain told me by being patient and waited for her to miss. I really had to thank Vittaya for his game plan,’’ added Suchanan, who received a huge compliment from Tamarine, who said she has the ability to reach the top 100 if she can maintain her form.

After falling 2-4 behind, Suchanan played a more aggressive game to get back into the set and finally managed a break when Kurhajcova netted a backhand.

The Thai then took the lead at 5-4 and went on to win the set when Kurhajcova hit another backhand into the net. The second set featured long baseline rallies, but the Slovak was worn down by the consistent play of Suchanan.

At 2-5 down, Kurhajcova was tired and struggled to keep the ball in play. After she sprayed a forehand long on match point, she threw her racquet down in frustration.

The Thai team, which will be given Bt500,000 in incentive money by Lawn Tennis Association of Thailand president Suwat Liptapunlop for the victory, reached the World Group status for the first time last year with a surprise win over Australia in the play-offs.

The draw for 2006 will be done later this year.