Erakovic’s world ranking set to plummet
‘ I feel like I’ve really improved.’ MARINA ERAKOVIC
ALL in all, it wasn’t a disastrous Wimbledon for Marina Erakovic, just an unfortunate one.
She is set for another plunge in the world rankings and a battle to get into the main draw at the US Open.
But she did have three good wins in qualifying, improving in each of her matches, then had rotten luck in being drawn against Simona Halep in the main draw.
The jump in quality between Halep, the world No 2, and the players she went up against in qualifying was colossal and the 6-4 6-1 loss was one where she couldn’t continually match the consistency of the Romanian.
Had she got a more favourable draw, she would have been in with a better chance of emulating last year’s run of making it through qualifying and into the third round of the main draw.
Despite the first round exit, for which she’ll pick up $70,000 in prizemoney, Erakovic says she’s felt an upswing in her tennis over the short grass court season.
‘‘I feel like I’ve really improved,’’ Erakovic said.
‘‘And not just the playing on grass.
‘‘But the more matches you play and the more wins you get under your belt, you’re able to manage certain situations and certain types of moments, like serving for the match or the fluctuations in what you’re thinking on the court.
‘‘Doing that has definitely been a positive for me.’’
Erakovic played 22 matches over a 28-day period, including last Sunday when she played in OFFSIDE the doubles final in Manchester, then drove for an hour-and-a-half to Ilkley, Yorkshire, and played in a three-set match in the first round of qualifying.
Impressive stuff, but because she did win two matches in the main draw at Wimbledon last year, she has 180 ranking points coming off.
She picked up 25 for coming through Wimbledon qualifying, but is likely to fall from 129 to around 200 in the rankings.
That means there’s no chance of getting in any WTA tournaments and she’ll have to play on the lower ITF circuit.
‘‘I’m going to sit down with my team, see what my ranking can be and where I can play,’’ she said.
‘‘I’ll take a bit of time off now and recover, put my feet up for a few days and then head back home before I go to the US.’’
Ideally, she’d like to have her ranking up in time for the US Open in September, but she faces a race against time to achieve that and may not even make it into qualifying.