Tamarine Tanasugarn hopes her run to the quarter-finals will encourage Asian governments to plough money into developing tennis talent there.

Although the 31-year-old lost yesterday's clash to No7 seed Venus Williams 6-4, 6-3, she is the first Thai player to reach the last eight of a Grand Slam.

Tanasugarn is now determined to use her increased profile caused by her Wimbledon success to make a difference to the sport in Asia, where China's Jie Zheng has also flown the flag by reaching the semi-finals.

"I hope because I'm doing well the regions start to take more interest in tennis," said the player, who is now based in Los Angeles.

"Maybe 15 years ago I don't think they really knew about tennis professionals. We're better with kickboxing.

"It's good for Asians to prove we can do well. The regions have started to realise we have this kind of sport. I hope the foundations or governments improve and support tennis."