Tennis: Kiwi wild card puts up a fighting effort

Sacha Jones. Photo / Dean Purcell

New Zealand's opening singles challenge came to a predictable end yesterday, but not before a fighting effort from wild card Sacha Jones.

You're probably right in thinking that is a sentence that gets written at least once every January, but in this case it doesn't make it any less true.

Against third-seed and two-time Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 20-year-old Jones pushed hard in the first set, before falling away in the second to lose 6-4, 6-2.

It was a tough draw for the Aucklander, whose career prize money of US$65,000 ($83,798) is about US$15 million less than the Russian's.

"I had quite a bit of fun out there," Jones said. "It's not fun to lose, but I wasn't overwhelmed by the situation and held my own for the most part."

She did. In the first set in particular she pushed Kuznetsova to the edge. Her off forehand was a weapon and Kuznetsova looked briefly rattled.

"The circumstances were very hard for me," Kuznetsova said. "First of all, I haven't played a match for three months. Then I played a player who was motivated, who had nothing to lose, who played in front of her home crowd.

"I had never played her before so had no idea what to expect. In the first set I had to watch and assess. She was playing good, loose and aggressive."

The second set was more of a procession, but only after Jones missed three consecutive break-point opportunities in the fifth game. Any one of those would have given her a 3-2 lead and momentum.

Kuznetsova staved those off and then watched as Jones' game waned, so much so that in the final game of the set the Kiwi let fly with an airshot.

"There were a few critical points where I needed to execute a bit better," Jones said.

In the doubles match that followed, Marina Erakovic kept the flag flying when she combined with Swede Sofia Arvidsson for a 6-2, 6-1 rout of Simona Halep and Tamira Paszek.

Erakovic meets 2009 finalist Elena Vesnina today to try to extend local interest in the singles through to the second round.