Marina Erakovic coach quietly happy

Coach Wesley Whitehouse is quietly confident Marina Erakovic is about to turn around her flagging tennis fortunes. The Aucklander has not won a tour level match in 2017 and is down on confidence heading into her first round match at the French Open tonight.

Erakovic plays American Shelby Rogers in the first round tonight with the match scheduled second on court 17.

Whitehouse sees the match as a golden opportunity for Erakovic to kick start her season with her ranking having slipped to 143 in the world.

"Absolutely, whenever you take over a new job you try to implement things you feel are better for that player and for me I felt Marina had lost what made her a great player, her ability to do certain things so I wanted to go back to whats worked for her. Its always a process and sometimes doing that you dont always get the results straight away." Whitehouse said.

Whitehouse is referring to Erakovics serve and forehand, in particular the off forehand which when working is one of the best in the womens game.

"Her serve and forehand are massive weapons for her and she doesnt always use that as much as shes could. Weve been working on that and its also tough when you have been injured and dont get the results that you want."

Erakovic and Rogers have played each other twice before for one win a piece. Rogers won 7-6 in the third set in their most recent meeting in Miami in March. Whitehouse sees plenty of positives for Erakovic heading into the rematch particularly given Rogers reached the quarter finals in Paris a year ago and is defending a lot of points.

"I think Marina will try to capitalise on that and use that as much as she can. Also the fact that Marina had a lot of opportunities in Miami (Rogers won 7-6 in the third set) and should have snuck that one and that will play on Shelbys mind for sure."

Meanwhile Kiwi doubles specialist Marcus Daniell and his Brazilian partner Marcelo Demoliner have lost the doubles final at the ATP tournament in Lyon.

Theyve been beaten 6-3, 3-6, 10-5 by Argentine Andres Molteni and Canadian Adil Shamasdin.

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from New Zealand Tennis