Can princess hold court in badminton?

She flew in last Saturday on board a private plane piloted by her father, and she’s staying at Dusit, a five-star hotel in Makati.

But for Thai Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana, the Royal treatment stops whenever she steps into the badminton court.

The 18-year-old Princess, who’s here to compete in women’s doubles, will have to sweat it out and work for every point as she shoots for a gold medal in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games.

She will team up with Sujittra Ekmongkolpaisarn, a former leading women’s badminton player in Thailand and her regular doubles partner back home.

Fresh from her two-hour flight, the Princess joined her partner and went straight to the Philsports Arena, the venue of the badminton competitions, to practice. They practiced for two hours.

The Princess arrived Saturday afternoon on a jet piloted by her father, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn who returned to Thailand shortly after meeting embassy officials and protocol staff in Manila.

Thai scribes said the Princess, when she’s home in Bangkok, travels around in a convoy of cars with police escorts. She’s been a low-key figure here with just a small team providing her security during the SEA Games.

Prof. Charoen Wattanasin, who heads the Badminton Association of Thailand, is confident that their women players have a good chance at the medals.

"The women’s team has a good chance. We have better individual talent than our rivals. Our doubles players are also stronger than them," he said.

"As for the men’s team event, we are underdogs. Our hopes lie with Boonsak Ponsana. However, I think we stand a good chance in individual events, not only the men’s singles and women’s doubles, but also in mixed doubles and the women’s singles," he added.

The Thai Princess will not see action until Dec. 1 and the Thai newsmen at the International Press Center of the SEA Games can’t wait to watch her play.

"We will go. We will watch," they said.