Spaniard puts early end to Erakovic’s Aussie hopes
Kiwi tennis player Marina Erakovic cited the nerves of playing at Margaret Court Arena as a factor in her first round loss at the Australian Open.
The Aucklander was dumped out by Spanish seventh seed Garbine Muguruza yesterday, squandering a 4-1 second set advantage.
Erakovic, ranked 110 in the world for singles, lost 7-5 6-4 against Muguruza, who battled a thigh injury during the match.
She had her opportunities against last year’s French Open winner, leading 4-1 in the second set. Erakovic began the match positively and had set point in the first set, leading 5-4. Erakovic committed 34 unforced errors, compared to the Spaniard’s 24.
‘‘I led in the second set and was going well in the first set, which was quite close. I had a set point and in all honesty I had a good lead and good chance and got nervous,’’ Erakovic said.
‘‘I shortened up my swing and I just got nervous, but what can I say life goes on. I don’t think there’s any player out there who doesn’t get tired or nervous.’’
Muguruza was not overly flattering about the contest and was just relieved to get through the clash.
‘‘It was a weird match, I felt a little bit nervous at the beginning. I think she was playing good, but I had felt a little uncomfortable with my injury, but I still thought I could turn it around despite being 1-4 down.’’
Muguruza moves on to play the United States’ Samantha Crawford in the second round.
Erakovic’s best singles finish at the Australian Open has been the second round, which she achieved three times previously.
She will play the Taiwan Open a WTA event at the end of January, but in the meantime will return home to Auckland to practice.
Meanwhile, Shelby Rogers caused the first upset of the Open yesterday, beating fourth-seeded Simona Halep 6-3, 6-1 in the opening match on the center court.
Playing just her second main draw match at the Australian Open, the No 52-ranked Rogers broke the 2014 French Open finalist’s serve four times on Rod Laver Arena. It was the second year in a row that Halep lost in the first round at Melbourne Park, and the fourth overall.
Halep, a two-time quarterfinalist in Australia, said she’d been hampered by pain in her left knee that was compounded by the pressure of the match.
‘‘Definitely (Rogers) played well. I think she played very high standard,’’ Halep said. ‘‘She was aggressive, and she hit very strong.’’
Unlike Halep, 13th-seeded Venus Williams improved on her firstround exit from last year to advance with 7-6 (5), 7-5 win over Kateryna Kozlova.
Olympic gold medallist Monica Puig raced through her opening match, beating Patricia Tig 6-0, 6-1. Duan Yingying was among the early winners with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Rebecca Sramkova.
Australian teenager Destanee Aiava’s milestone match ended in a 6-3, 7-6 (4) loss to German qualifier Mona Barthel. The 16-year-old Melbourne high school student became the first player born in this millennium to play a main draw match at a major.
No 27 Irina-Camelia Begu advanced and, in two all-American matches, Samantha Crawford beat Lauren Davis 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 and Alison Riske beat Madison Brengle 7-5, 6-3.
Two seeded players lost early matches, with Varvara Lepchenko beating No 19 Kiki Bertens 7-5, 7-6 (5) and former No 1-ranked Jelena Jankovic beating No 26 Laura Siegemund 6-1, 1-6, 6-4.
Fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori needed 3 hours 34 minutes to advance, beating Andrey Kuznetsov 7-5, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6), 6-2.
There were two early retirements in the men’s draw. No 10-seeded Tomas Berdych was leading 6-1 when Luca Vanni retired, and Jeremy Chardy was leading 4-0 when Nicolas Almagro retired with an injured right calf muscle in the first set.
Ryan Harrison beat Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 and No. 29 Viktor Troicki beat Damir Dzumhur 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 2-6, 6-3.