Tennis: Erakovic eyes return to rankings

Marina Erakovic has been given a wildcard entry into next month’s ASB Classic. Photo / Getty Images

Marina Erakovic has no doubts she can put an injury-blighted year behind her and stage a climb back up the tennis rankings.

"Oh yeah, without a doubt," she said. "Definitely."

Now ranked 234th in the world, Erakovic will again begin the new season at the ASB Classic in Auckland in the first week of January, having been granted a wildcard this week to the WTA Tour event along with fellow New Zealander Sacha Jones.

It was her performance as a 19-year-old at the 2008 Classic, when she reached the semifinals, upsetting top seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva along the way, that started a big move up the rankings, peaking at a career-best 49th six months later after she made the third round at Wimbledon.

However, this year, a hip problem and then a sprained ankle sidelined Erakovic for seven months.

She played three ITF events after her return to competition in late October, twice getting into the main draw, where she lost in the first round.

Erakovic said the long layoff had been a new experience for her and, while she had got over her injuries, she was lacking match play.

"It's the matches that I'm needing - playing a lot of tournaments and getting used to those situations again," she said.

"And while I've not been playing, everyone else has been working hard and improving, so you have to catch up again, but it's made me a lot stronger as well."

The toughest part about being out of action was watching tennis on the television and wishing she was out there, Erakovic said.

She was at home for the first few months and wasn't able to do much.

"I was a couch potato and that was really hard," she said.

"But once I was back training again I was really hungry."

Because of her enforced inactivity, Erakovic has a protected ranking which she can use to get her into up to eight WTA Tour events next year.

"I would love to do well in those, get a good ranking again in the top 100, and still play the WTA," she said.

The first of the eight events she was targeting were the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami.

Erakovic's injury woes have seen her overtaken by Jones as New Zealand's top female player.

Jones, 19, had her own injury problems early this year, but came back with a vengeance to win five ITF titles.

She strung together 24 consecutive match victories in winning four of those titles and making the final of another event, and will head into the Classic with a ranking of 167.

Rather than expressing any disappointment over losing the mantle of the country's No 1, Erakovic praised Jones for her run of results.

"I'm happy for her and it's a great thing to have two of us on tour," she said.

"It's a great thing for the Fed Cup if there's two of us. The more players we have, the better."

- NZPA