Thailand suffered a 3-0 loss in the opening tie of the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group 1 competition as highly fancied hosts Kazakhstan proved too strong for their young opponents.
The tournament is being held at the National Tennis Centre in Astana.
In the absence of Luksika Kumkhum, who at No.83 is the highest ranked Thai player, world No.297 Peangtarn Plipuech has to shoulder the responsibility of serving as the country's top player in Kazakhstan.
Luksika is skipping the Fed Cup competition to participate in some WTA Tour events in the United States.
For the match against the hosts yesterday, the Thai team decided to use Peangtarn in the doubles battle only.
In the first singles rubber, 17-year-old Thai Mananchaya Sawangkaew played against world No.96 Zarina Diyas.
As expected, Diyas started off strongly and raced to a 5-0 advantage in the opening set.
The only bright spot for Mananchaya in the set was the sixth game in which she held her service to avoid a whitewash as she lost 6-1.
In the second set, Mananchaya recovered and put up a great fight to carry the score to 3-3.
However, Diyas' vast experience served her well as she reclaimed the upper hand and went on to score a 6-3 win to wrap up the rubber.
The second singles rubber pitted Kazakhstan's world No.43 Yulia Putintseva against Nudnida Luangnam.
Putintseva put on an impressive show to cruise to a 6-2 victory in the first set.
Nudnida upped her game a notch in the second set and tried in vain to match the wits of Putintseva, who grabbed the set 6-3 to win the rubber and put the match out of the Thais' reach.
The doubles duel saw Peangtarn team up with Varunya Wongteanchai to take on Anna Danilina and Galina Voskoboeva.
The Kazakh pair, showing better combination, won the doubles encounter 6-3, 6-3 without much trouble to complete the rout.
The Thai team will next play India today in their second tie of the tournament.
