Tennis: Erakovic has tough struggle ahead

Marina Erakovic will struggle to emulate her 2008 heroics to make the semifinals at the ASB Tennis Classic, starting tomorrow.

Erakovic has drawn 19-year-old Alize Cornet in the first round. The 21-year-old has never played Cornet but the Frenchwoman will be stiff opposition with a world ranking that has been as high as 11.

Cornet won the WTA title at Budapest in 2008.

It will be Erakovic's first event on the WTA tour since injuring her hip in March. She has played on the second-tier ITF tour in recent months.

It could be a tournament of little note for New Zealand fans, following Kiwi number one Sacha Jones' withdrawal with a stomach muscle injury last week. Kairangi Vano failed to make the main draw, beaten 6-4, 7-6 by Severine Bremond Beltrane of France in qualifying. Ellen Barry followed the same route, beaten 7-5, 6-2 by Frenchwoman Stephanie Cohen-Aloro.

Tough opposition is plentiful in the field, which features five of the present top 20 women players.

Top seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy will play American Jill Craybas, while second seed Li Na of China plays Estonia's Kaia Kanepi. Pennetta's Fed Cup-winning teammate Francesca Schiavone is fourth seed.

Schiavone has played in New Zealand once before, making the semi-finals in 2000. Careful to win over her audience, she claims to take a lot of heart from the similarities between rugby and tennis: "I love rugby because there is a big respect between teams and at the end they have a big dinner together as friends.

"You also have to be focused and strong, physically and mentally. And there's such an atmosphere at some of those games. Like when 80,000 packed the San Siro in my home town Milan recently to watch the All Blacks."

Another source of motivation in the Schiavone handbook is also close to home.

"I often like to watch Gladiator before tournaments. It's an amazing movie that can explain what life was like back in Rome. When you are in front of a lion, you fight or you die."

Another first-round match of note among the top-ranked players will see the recently reinstated third seed Yanina Wickmayer play German Julia Goerges. Wickmayer had originally been banned for a year in October for failing to meet the World Anti-Doping Agency's "Whereabouts" rule that you need to be available for testing at any time. The ban was lifted last month.