Tennis: Marina's US Open triumph

By ALAN PERROTT

Auckland teenager Marina Erakovic won the junior girls doubles at the US Open in New York yesterday.

She is only the second New Zealand woman to win a title at a Grand Slam - Judy Chaloner won the Australian Open senior women's doubles title with Dianne Evers in 1979

After her two-set victory with Dutch partner Michaella Krajicek, the country's newest tennis star said: "I'm pretty tired tonight, but it has been an amazing experience and I am delighted."

At home in Kohimarama, her mother, Liliiana, tried to follow her daughter's progress on a tennis website but finally had to take a walk to calm jangled nerves.

"We couldn't watch her live, all we could do was follow her on the internet and I just couldn't do that. It was so slow, so I went walking down Tamaki Drive while she was playing. I was very nervous and kept walking until my daughter Julia called and said, 'You can come home now'."

The 16-year-old's 7-6, 6-0 victory over Viktoria Azarenka and Olga Govortsova of Belarus caps a run of successes with Krajicek. This year the pair made the junior doubles semifinals at the Australian Open and the final at Wimbledon and last month won the Canadian Open.

This is the Glendowie College student's first full year on the international tennis tour.

"The US Open is very different to Wimbledon," she told TVNZ. "It's a lot more noisy and the Americans in general are much louder, whereas it's more reserved at Wimbledon."

The first set of the final had been tight, with both pairs having their serve broken.

"It wasn't until we won the tiebreaker that we grew in confidence and the second set was much easier. We didn't play [the final] on the main show courts, but we had quite a big crowd of about 500 ... so it was a bit of an experience, to say the least."

The Erakovic family came to New Zealand from Croatia when Marina was 5 and she has been playing tennis since she was 7.

"There is a buzz in our house," Mrs Erakovic said last night. "We're over the moon, but when we spoke to Marina she was very calm. She is excited about the win, but was very tired after playing doubles and singles matches every day."

The international circuit has meant a gruelling 7am-to-midnight daily schedule for Marina, who has only one day's rest before flying to Kentucky for her next tournament.

She is expected back in time to prepare for her sixth-form exams in November, and plans to take on the senior circuit next year.

Until her win, New Zealand's best female tennis performers had been Michelle Parun, runner-up in the junior doubles and singles at the 1984 Australian Open, Julie Richardson, runner-up in the junior doubles at Wimbledon in 1995, and Rewa Hudson and Leanne Baker, runners-up in the junior doubles at the 1998 Australian Open.