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Marina Erakovic says losing in the first round of the Olympic tournament late last night has left her with one of the worst feelings of her career.
"It's the Olympics and you are with a team in the village - and obviously they aren't going to give me a hard time but it's nice to make others proud and to win for New Zealand. And when you don't it's tough," said the 20-year-old Aucklander after her 7-5, 6-7, 4-6 loss to Japan's Ayumi Morita.
She was being tough on herself, especially as she had missed closing out the match in the second set tiebreak when was serving for matchpoint.
The result ended a protracted Olympic debut for Erakovic. She was supposed to play her first-round match on Sunday night, but it was postponed when thunderstorms struck the Chinese capital.
The match against Morita finally began on Monday night, but was delayed again at 1am local time when heavy rain set in during the third set.
The pair were back out on court at 5.15 pm local time last night, resuming their match with it poised at one set all and Erakovic serving in the third.
Under sunny skies, she began the third set last night with a deft touch to win the first game. It went downhill from there.
Morita, 145th in the world, hit the ball hard and accurately. Erakovic, ranked 49, served well, but made mistake after mistake.
"I can't say I didn't have chances," said Erakovic. "Today, I didn't come out strong and she came out better, she was firing away."
Her coach, Michiel Schapers, said he felt Erakovic had "muscled" the ball too much. "I think it's that she wanted it so badly, she wanted to get a win here at the Olympics and she was trying too hard."
She has had a brilliant year, striding the courts of Wimbledon and Roland Garros, but she had been undone on the number three court of the Beijing Olympic Tennis Centre.
Erakovic will stay in the athletes village until Friday. She has a tournament in the United States before she lines up in the US Open.
At least the loss against Morita saved her from a gruelling night. Because of the rain delays, Morita was scheduled to play the second round four hours later against Na Li, of China. Li had knocked out third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, of Russia, in a straight-sets victory on Monday.
