KEY POINTS:
After one of New Zealand's more drawn-out Olympic debuts, tennis player Marina Erakovic tumbled out in the first round at the hands of Japanese teenager Ayumi Morita here today.
The world No 49 struggled with Morita's court speed and powerful ground strokes as the 18-year-old finished off the rain-interrupted match in 35 minutes at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre.
Morita won 5-7 7-6 (9-7) 6-4, after they resumed today with Erakovic 40-30 up in the first game of the final set. The match lasted just under two-and-a-half hours in total.
It continued Erakovic's jinx against the diminutive 18-year-old Morita, ranked 96 places below her.
In two previous meetings, Morita won both in straight sets before Erakovic's climb up the world rankings which included a third round exit at Wimbledon in June.
Originally scheduled for Sunday, their first round match was hit by two rain delays, the second of which forced them off the court just before 1am local time (5am NZT) this morning.
Erakovic will rue her big chance from the previous night when she had one match point in the second set tiebreak but couldn't convert as Morita won three consecutive points to take the set.
They were playing for a second round match on court one later tonight against China's world No 43 Li Na who upset Russian third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets yesterday.
Tournament organisers raised the ire of 20-year-old Erakovic's coach, the Dutch former world No 25 Michiel Schapers, who said before the resumption it was unfair to schedule two matches within hours of each other.
"If you play one match, then have to play against a fresh player, it doesn't seem logical," Schapers told NZPA.
"I've played in Grand Slams and Olympics and I've never seen that happen before."
Morita was quicker into stride when the match resumed in warm, clear conditions, breaking Erakovic in the third and seventh games to race to a 5-2 lead.
Erakovic broke back to be 3-5 down as Morita served for the match, then Erakovic held to 4-5.
Erakovic saved two match points but Morita finally broke through when Erakovic hit a return long, the story of her rusty performance.
Both players made plenty of unforced errors, with Morita surprisingly winning that count 78-71.
But Morita hit more clean winners, 22-12 on the forehand and 12-2 on her powerful double-handed backhand.
- NZPA
