KEY POINTS:
New Zealand women's tennis number one Marina Erakovic is likely to face a start at the French Open in Paris tonight (New Zealand time), following her performance in reaching the doubles final at the Istanbul Cup.
Erakovic and her Slovenian partner, Polona Hercog, proved no match for the third-seeded pair of American Jill Craybas and Belarussian Olga Govortsova, losing 1-6 2-6.
Erakovic, 20, flew to Paris from Istanbul after the match but was spared the prospect of an opening day start with little time to practise on the Parisian red clay.
The forecast for day one at Roland Garros isn't great, with rain in store for much of the opening week.
Erakovic is making her first Grand Slam main draw appearance in singles and meets veteran Italian Tathiana Garbin in the first round.
Garbin is ranked 56th in the world, 22 places ahead of Erakovic but has been in a form slump.
Garbin lost in the first round of her last two tournaments, with her best result this year, a quarterfinal showing at the Estoril Open in Portugal last month.
Play gets underway at 9 tonight New Zealand time with second seed Ana Ivanovic first on centre court against Sweden's Sofia Avridsson.
- NZPA
