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MELBOURNE - New Zealand's Marina Erakovic won her first-round match at the Australian Open last night with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Czech Petra Cetkovska in stifling conditions.
Erakovic, 20, had her serve broken in the first game but quickly broke back and then established a strong lead, racing to a 4-1 scoreline in front of a boisterous crowd right behind her on every point.
Eventually Cetkovska came back into the match by holding her serve twice and then breaking Erakovic to make the score close at 5-4. However, Erakovic then easily broke Cetkovska's serve to take the set 6-4.
The first stanza of the second set was a real battle with Erakovic, ranked 68 in the world, holding serve and then breaking her opponent before Cetkovska - who is ranked at 85 - broke back.
The following game went to deuce on several occasions before Erakovic managed to break again for the 3-1 lead.
Erakovic should have won the match more easily but failed to capitalise on the numerous break points she had, converting just five from 15.
She also served seven double faults, but five of them were in the second set, while Cetkovska had five doubles in the first set and three in the second.
Erakovic will play Czech Lucie Safarova in the second round. Safarova has a current ranking of 60, but has been as high as 22 and has a best effort of quarterfinals at the Australian Open in 2007.
The last New Zealander to win a singles match at the Open was Brett Steven in 1996. The last NZ woman was Claudine Toleafoa in 1991 with success over Stephanie Rottier of Holland in the first round.
- NZPA
