New Zealand tennis No 1 Marina Erakovic has lost at the US Open in New York. She suffered her first-round exit when losing 3-6 6-7 to Frenchwoman Pauline Parmentier in the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. Making her main draw debut in the US Open at Flushing Meadows, Erakovic said the latest loss hurt her deeply after she led 5-2 in the second set. 

Erakovic said she needed to work on her forehand, which let her down today as she sprayed a number of shots and gave away numerous unforced errors. In the first set the games went with serve until the eighth game when Parmentier broke Erakovic’s serve to go 5-3 ahead. She then held serve and took the set. In the second set the New Zealander worked her way into a 5-2 lead and looked ready to take the match into a third set. However Parmentier held her own serve to take the score to 3-5 and then broke Erakovic’s serve before holding and then breaking again. Erakovic unable to counter Parmentier’s powerful shots in the tiebreak and faded 2-7. 

She now faces a tough first round in the doubles where she and her partner, Croatia’s Jelena Kostanic Tosic, face second seeds Kveta Peschke, of the Czech Republic, and Australian Rennae Stubbs.