Once again the defending men’s Scarbro Caro Bowl champions, Parnell, have listed a who’s who of tennis in New Zealand as the first round gets underway tonight (Friday) with plenty of international flavour.
Davis Cup player Rubin Statham will return from Australia on several occasions, with the regular team set to be Matt Prentice, ex-top-20 player – Alastair Hunt, Jacob Olsen from Pompallier and Steve Downs. More…
Marina Erakovic has been beaten in the first round of a WTA tournament for the third straight week. After qualifying for the second week in a row with relative ease, Marina found the going a lot harder in the main draw of the Hansol Korea Open going down 6-4 6-4 to Meng Yuan from China. Apart from her last three tournaments, the only previous times that Marina has appeared in the main draw of a WTA event have been as a wildcard at the ASB Classic in Auckland.
It is with much sadness that the Auckland Tennis family farewell long time volunteer and Life Member of Auckland Tennis, Ray Rodgers. Ray’s unselfish and committed involvement in tennis activities, particularly tournaments, has been ongoing for over 40 years. His quiet humor and sharp perception of sport and life will be sadly missed. The thousands of lives Ray has touched over these decades are the richer for the experience.
Marina Erakovic has avoided a first round match against top seed Venus Williams at the Hansol Korea Open in Seoul. Erakovic won three matches in qualifying and has been drawn to play Meng Yuan (Chn) in her opening main draw match at the Tier 4 WTA tournament. The pair have played each other four times in the last couple of years and are even at two wins each. Marina won the last encounter at a tournament in Beijing about a year ago. Yuan is currently ranked 132 on the WTA list and Marina is 154 in the world. The match is scheduled to be played today.
Marina Erakovic has qualified for the main draw at the Hansol Korea Open in Seoul. Marina blasted eight aces on her way to a 6-3 6-3 victory against Naomi Cavaday from Great Britain and, judging by the match statistics, Marina appeared to become more dominant as the match wore on. Her first round opponent is not yet known, but there is a one in four chance that she will be drawn to play the top seed – reigning Wimbledon champion Venus Williams.
Top seed Marina Erakovic has moved through to the final round of qualifying at the Hansol Korea Open in Seoul. Marina easily beat Tamago Takagashi (Jpn) 6-1 6-1 in the first round before knocking out Kyung-Mi Chang (Kor) 6-0 6-1 in the next. Her final round opponent at the US$145000 Tier 4 tournament is Naomi Cavaday from Great Britain. The main draw features Venus Williams and last week’s WTA Tour winners Agnes Szavay and Maria Kirilenko.
Marina Erakovic lost 7-5 6-3 to sixth seed Agnes Szavay in the first round of the US$600000 China Open in Beijing. Despite the loss, the tournament has been somewhat of a breakthrough for Marina after qualifying for a WTA event for the first time.
