Tennis: Daniell finishes bad year with biggest victory

Marcus Daniell on his way to victory against Austen Childs in the men's final yesterday at the Albany Tennis Park. Photo / Greg Bowker

Marcus Daniell celebrated the news he would receive a lucrative wildcard into next month's Auckland Open with the biggest win of his tennis career last night, beating surprise package Austen Childs 6-4 6-1 to claim the New Zealand Residential title.

"It's not an international event or anything but it is always nice to do well at home," Daniell said.

"It's very cool. I'm very happy."

New Zealand's fourth-ranked men's player at 769, Daniell beat Kiwi No 2 Rubin Statham in Sunday's semifinal before overcoming Childs to justify his Heineken Open wildcard.

"To be honest, I had a really bad year," he said. "I made a lot of mistakes but I learned a lot. I'm a lot fitter now and I'm looking forward to taking that fitness into the Heineken."

In the women's event, Marina Erakovic also ended a horror year on a winning note, defeating Ellen Barry to claim the title.

After seven months on the sidelines, when she battled hip and ankle problems that saw her ranking plunge to 234, Erakovic was just happy to be out on court and pain-free.

She ground her way through a tight opening set to dispatch second seed Barry 7-5 6-2 in her first appearance at the Residentials since she was 15.

"It's always nice to finish with a win, but I'm just really happy I'm injury free," Erakovic said.

"When you go through a period like this it's just such a nice feeling when you're on the court and you don't have any pain."

Some of the rust Erakovic accrued from her lengthy stint on the sidelines was still evident last night as she struggled to get into the match early on.

The former Kiwi number one, who climbed as high as 49 in the world in mid-2008, looked frustrated after committing a number of unforced errors to hand Barry a 4-3 lead in a tight opening set.

Erakovic admitted she struggled to settle into her game, with the fading light at Albany Tennis Park causing her a few problems. But once she found her rhythm, she was able to comfortably take the second.

While Erakovic wasn't entirely happy with last night's performance, she was pleased to have the match play under her belt heading into the ASB Classic early next month, for which she has been granted a wildcard.

"This was something I wanted. I wanted a tough match and it's definitely something I can look back on and say, 'Well, this and this I did well, this I need to go out on the court tomorrow and work on a little bit', so I reckon it was all right."