Paradorn Srichaphan has yet to play competitively since retiring with a wrist injury in his opening match at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami last March, and the inactivity has seen the former top-10 player drop to No. 152 in the rankings. But thanks to his personal life, he’s still making headlines in his native Thailand.
Srichaphan and fiancée, 2005 Miss Universe Natalie Glebova, are one of the country’s most high-profile couples, even rating their own collective nickname of “Paradyke” – Thailand’s answer to “Brangelina.”
The couple became engaged while in Bali on vacation on April 13 and held a press conference at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel in Bangkok to announce the news in the spring.
Last week, the two assembled the press again at the ultra lux Sukhathai Hotel to update the public on their wedding plans as well as to report the purchase of a new $1.25 million home.
Standing behind a small scale model of their new home, Srichaphan, 28, and Glebova, 25, fielded questions regarding new palatial 4700 sq ft pad, set in the Prime Nature Villa Estates formerly known as Sundown Lake, home to many jet skiers in the Bang Na-Srinakarin region.
While the average home in Thailand is less than half that size, the Srichaphans decided that they needed more space and purchased the 2500 sq ft lot behind their home to build a swimming pool and a garage, no doubt for the Thai’s collection of luxury cars, which includes a yellow Ferrari Modena and a black Mercedes-Benz SL 500.
Another reason for the additional real estate, Glebova says, is to have room for a large house and backyard for their future children.
“I loved it. From the moment I saw it, I thought about seeing little kids running around,” the future Mrs. Srichaphan said of the house.
Besides it aesthetics and location, she also likes the “feeling of coming home and feeling comfortable.”
Glebova sees herself having two kids, “but who knows what may end up happening?”
When the engagement was initially announced, the nuptials were tentatively set for November or December of this year – the final date has now been set as November 29, at the end of the ATP season. Not that Paradorn is planning to play anytime soon, but word has it that he will be inviting many of his tennis colleagues to his wedding, including Germans Tommy Haas and Nicolas Kiefer. How do his fellow pros feel about Srichaphan's glamorous wife-to-be? "I think we'd all stand up and give him a round of applause," joked Roddick in Bangkok this week. "That's well done."
The wedding will be an elaborate affair—one of the biggest in Thailand—and will garner an equivalent amount of media attention.
Glebova herself will be wearing four dresses throughout the big day—one for the actual ceremony, one for the reception, another in which to dance, and of course, one for the press conference.