After disappointing loss to Kvitova at French Open
I’m not a young bird any more, but I think the more experience I get the better I go . . .
‘‘Hopefully after having a little sulk I will get up and carry on.”
Kvitova is one of the best players in the world who some believe is destined to become world No 1. The left hander has a devastating forehand, big serve and moves well — weapons that have helped her win Wimbledon twice.
But against Erakovic, the Czech was error-prone — 47 unforced errors on the official count and many more forced by Erakovic who mixed things up well by taking the pace away from Kvitova at times. “I did a lot of things right,” she said. “I served pretty well and had a lot of break-point chances. It’s difficult to take because I would like to get some of these close matches going my way. I guess in the third set she hit a couple of lines at 4-4 and things could have gone either way.”
Erakovic still has the doubles with Britain’s Heather Watson against third seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic tomorrow. Two of the three Kiwi players on doubles action bowed out with Artem Sitak the only one to progress. Sitak and his American partner Nicolas Monroe defeated German Dustin Brown and Austrian Andreas Haider Maurer 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
But Michael Venus and his Croatian partner Mate Pavic fell 6-2, 6-4 to Pablo Andujar and Olivier Marach and Marcus Daniell and Steve Darcis fell 7-5, 6-1 to seventh seeds Nenad Zimonjic and Marcin Matkowski.
Matt Brown travelled to Paris with Emirates Airline.
Marina Erakovic