Tennis: Erakovic advances at Wimbledon

New Zealand tennis number one Marina Erakovic is through to the second round at Wimbledon after winning her opening match in straight sets this morning.

Erakovic, ranked 49th in the world, was too good for 54th-ranked Urszula Radwanska from Poland, winning 6-4, 6-4 on court eight.

The match took just over an hour and a half and saw Erakovic hit 33 winners and only make 15 unforced errors.

In both sets Erakovic found herself trailing, but was able to fight back from 2-4 in the first set to finally break Radwanska in the 10th game to take the set 6-4.

In the second set Erakovic found herself down 2-3 but broke back to level at 3-3 before holding her own serve to go ahead 4-3 as games then went with serve until Erakovic broke Radwanska in the 10th game again to triumph.

Erakovic will play 21st seed Roberta Vinci in the second round after the Italian eased by Australia's Ashleigh Barty in straight sets.

The best result in singles at Wimbledon for Erakovic was in 2008 where she reached the third round. Last year she progressed to the second round before being beaten by Daniela Hantuchova.

Erakovic is likely to play her doubles first round with Thai player Tamarine Tanasugarn tonight (NZT).

They have a difficult first match against the Chinese pair of Jie Zheng and Shuai Peng who beat Erakovic and her partner Monica Niculescu in the second round at the French Open recently.

In 2011 Erakovic and Tanasugarn reached the semifinals of the doubles at Wimbledon.

- HERALD ONLINE