Tennis: Erakovic joins WTA player council

Marina Erakovic says she is honoured to have been voted on to the council. Photo / AP

Kiwi tennis No1 Marina Erakovic isn't quite a veteran of the women's tennis tour but she's experienced enough to feel comfortable and to have been voted on to the player council yesterday, something which shows the respect she has from her fellow competitors.

The 26-year-old Erakovic faced former US Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova from Russia in the first round of the Open at the Billie Jean King tennis centre in New York overnight.

After a bit of a difficult period results-wise, Erakovic has put together some solid performances in the past four weeks.

"I've had a lot of tennis. I went through Montreal, Cincinnati, Washington and New Haven tournaments and I'm hitting well. I was just in New Haven and we made the doubles final, so I've had a lot of tennis."

Despite the wins and the losses and the tour's ups and downs, Erakovic, who is ranked 82 in singles and 40 in doubles, feels quite content on the tennis tour.

"I think I enjoy it more as I go along now. You get into a comfort area where you're comfortable with your game and how you want to play and where you're not so overwhelmed. I just was voted player council member, that's pretty cool and I get to represent players now, that will be interesting. It's definitely an honour. Basically like any other company you have the workers who are us and they select their representatives and I'm one of them. It will be interesting to see how WTA functions with the board, the CEO, what the strategic plan is what the players want, that's interesting to me."