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Marina Erakovic - Source: Photosport -
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New Zealand's Marina Erakovic crashed out of the Australian Open
on Wednesday, comprehensively beaten by Chinese 15th seed Li
Na.
The 21-year-old was inconsistent throughout the match and lost
6-2 6-0 in just 51 minutes.
Erakovic was broken three times in each set in what was possibly
her worst performance in a grand slam.
After the match Erakovic was quick to laud her opponent.
"She played really well and literally I didn't stand a chance
today" she told tvnz.co.nz.
"She returned well, took every shot early and just ripped it and
you can't find a rthym with that."
Erakovic only managed to land 56% of her first serves and this was
compounded by only taking 36% of points when she did make her first
serve.
The Kiwi, who is in the main draw thanks to an injury protected
ranking of 83, competed well in plenty of rallies with the world
number 17 but looked rusty and lacked speed around the court.
The Chinese number one was all power from the baseline and was
particularly ruthless in dispatching the Erakovic second
serve.
Terrible start
Erakovic made the worst possible start, losing her first service
game to love with a couple of unforced errors.
After Na consolidated her break, Erakovic had to hold but more
mistakes saw the Kiwi broken again and Na had a 4-0
lead.
It was then Erakovic stepped up and gave the large and vocal Kiwi
contingent something to cheer about, breaking the Na serve to
love.
When she then held Na to love in the next game she had won
eight consecutive points and there was a sniff of a comeback.
But the 27-year-old Na held serve and then broke for a third time
to take the first set 6-2 in 28 minutes.
The second set was a fair procession with Erakovic unable to hold
serve.
She won just 11 points in the entire set, which lasted just 23
minutes.
