Marina Erakovic

Marina Eraković

Erakovic at the 2014 Nürnberger Versicherungscup
Country (sports)	New Zealand
Residence	Auckland, New Zealand
Born	(1988-03-06) 6 March 1988 Split, SFR Yugoslavia (now Croatia)
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Turned pro	2005
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	US$2,004,198
Singles
Career record	306–193
Career titles	1 WTA, 12 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 39 (7 May 2012)
Current ranking	No. 74 (16 February 2015)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	2R (2009, 2012, 2014)
French Open	3R (2013)
Wimbledon	3R (2008, 2013)
US Open	2R (2014)
Doubles
Career record	166–124
Career titles	8 WTA, 6 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 25 (24 June 2013)
Current ranking	No. 40 (16 February 2015)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	1R (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
French Open	QF (2013, 2014)
Wimbledon	SF (2011)
US Open	QF (2008)
Last updated on: 16 February 2015.

Marina Erakovic (Croatian: Marina Eraković) (born 6 March 1988 in Split) is a professional tennis player from New Zealand. Her career high Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings are World No. 39 for singles, achieved on 7 May 2012, and World No. 25 in doubles, achieved on 24 June 2013. She has won one WTA singles title, at Memphis in February 2013.

Erakovic is the only New Zealander to have been in the top 100 singles players of the WTA in recent years. After four years in that group, she dropped to 103 after missing the 2014 Coupe Banque Nationale in Quebec, where she had been runner-up a year earlier. She bounced back to number 90 a week later, however, following her efforts at the Toray Pan Pacific Open. She still remains in the top 50 for doubles. Michael Venus was, until 2 February 2015, the highest-ranked New Zealand man, having reached a career-high 57 in Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) doubles on 13 October 2014. Compatriot Artem Sitak's doubles ranking reached 51 on 16 February 2015, following his effort in winning the 2015 Open Sud de France with fellow Kiwi Marcus Daniell, whose own ranking jumped to 86.

Personal life

Erakovic was born in Split, Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia), and emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand, in 1994 as a 6-year-old with her family. She attended St Thomas's Primary School and Glendowie College in Auckland.

Junior career

Erakovic and Monica Niculescu were the runners-up to Victoria Azarenka and Olga Govortsova (Belarusian spelling being Volha Havartsova) in the 2004 Wimbledon Championships girls' doubles, before Erakovic teamed with Michaëlla Krajicek to win the 2004 US Open girls' doubles title, beating Niculescu and her Romanian team-mate Mădălina Gojnea. She then partnered Azarenka to an easy win in the 2005 Australian Open girls' doubles over Nikola Fraňková and Ágnes Szávay, and reunited with Niculescu to be runners-up in the 2005 Wimbledon Championships girls' doubles, defeated this time by Azarenka and Szávay. When she won the 2004 US Open Girls' Doubles title, Erakovic became the first player from New Zealand to win a Grand Slam title (Singles or Doubles) since David Lewis won the 1981 Australian Open Boys' Doubles title in partnership with Australian Tony Withers.

Professional career

2005–2007

In 2005 and 2006, Erakovic won five International Tennis Federation (ITF) singles titles. She was a wildcard entry in the 2005 ASB Classic in Auckland where she lost in the second round. She lost in the second round of qualifying for the 2006 French Open.

In 2007 Erakovic lost in the second round of qualifying for the Australian Open, the first round of qualifying for the French Open, the first round of qualifying for Wimbledon, and the third round of qualifying for the US Open. She was a wildcard entry in the 2007 ASB Classic where she lost in the second round.

2008

Erakovic received a wild card into the 2008 ASB Classic where she defeated World No. 67 American Ashley Harkleroad in the second round 7–6, 7–5, and defeated the top seed and World No. 22 Russian Vera Zvonareva 6–3, 2–6, 7–6 in a quarterfinal. She lost in the semifinals to World No. 90 Frenchwoman Aravane Rezaï 6–3, 7–5. Erakovic was the first New Zealander to reach the quarterfinals at this WTA event since Belinda Cordwell in 1990.

Erakovic lost in the first round of qualifying for the Australian Open.

At the French Open, World No. 80 Erakovic defeated World No. 56 Tathiana Garbin in the first round 6–7, 6–3, 6–3 before losing to third-seeded Jelena Janković in the second round 6–2, 7–6. She was the first New Zealand-raised player to make the main draw of a Grand Slam singles tournament since 1993.

At Wimbledon, Erakovic played her second career Grand Slam singles tournament. She defeated Krajicek in the first round and Julia Görges in the second round before losing to Tamarine Tanasugarn in the third round 4–6, 6–4, 6–4. She was the first New Zealand player to reach the third round at Wimbledon since Belinda Cordwell in 1988.

Erakovic played for New Zealand at the Summer Olympics in Beijing, where she lost in the first round to wildcard Ayumi Morita from Japan.

At the US Open, Erakovic lost in the first round to Pauline Parmentier of France 6–3, 7–6 but reached the doubles quarterfinals with Jelena Kostanić Tošić. This was the first time a New Zealander had reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament in either singles or doubles since 1994.

2009

In the 2009 ASB Classic Erakovic won a match in her home event for the first time, defeating Nuria Llagostera Vives of Spain in the first round 7–5, 6–4. In the second round, she lost to top-seed Elena Dementieva of Russia 6–2, 6–3.

At the 2009 Australian Open, in her first participation in the event, Erakovic advanced to the second round by beating Petra Cetkovská 6–4, 7–5. In the second round she was defeated by Lucie Šafářová 6–1, 3–6, 9–7.

Due to an ongoing hip injury, Erakovic missed the 2009 French Open. She also withdrew from Wimbledon with the same problem.

2010

Erakovic competed in singles and doubles at the 2010 ASB Classic, losing in the first round in both events. She then competed at the 2010 Australian Open, losing to eventual semi-finalist Li Na in the first round. In doubles she and partner Casey Dellacqua lost to 11th seeded Russian pair Alla Kudryavtseva and Ekaterina Makarova in the first round.

Erakovic's next tournament was the 2010 PTT Pattaya Open where she again lost in the first round of the singles, however she and partner Tamarine Tanasugarn won the doubles title, Erakovic's fourth.

2011

Erakovic started her year with the 2011 ASB Classic in Auckland where she received a wildcard entry. She lost in the first round against Elena Vesnina 2–6, 2–6.

Erakovic then competed on the ITF where she won three titles.

In the 2011 Australian Open she defeated Irena Pavlovic in the first round of qualifying draw, but lost round 2 to Kurumi Nara.

Erakovic took part in the 2011 French Open where she won 3 straight matches in the qualifying draw against Ajla Tomljanovic, Kurumi Nara and Petra Cetkovská, qualifying her for the main draw. In the first round of the main draw she lost 6–2 4–6 4–6 to Arantxa Rus.

Erakovic qualified for Wimbledon, where she beat Kai-Chen Chang in the first round, her first singles Grand Slam win since the Australian Open in 2009. She lost to Daniela Hantuchová in the second round.

At the Bank of the West Classic, Erakovic had the biggest win of her singles career, defeating top seed and then World No.4 Victoria Azarenka in the second round to reach the quarterfinals.

In the US Open she was defeated in the first round by Mirjana Lučić after coming through 3 rounds of qualification.

Following the US Open, Erakovic made her first WTA final at the Challenge Bell in Quebec City. To reach the final she defeated Caroline Garcia, Irina Falconi, top seed Daniela Hantuchová and defending champion Tamira Paszek. In the final she lost to Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová.

2012

At the Australian Open, Erakovic beat Irena Pavlovic in the first round and lost 6–3, 6–7, 3–6 to Christina McHale in the second round. In the doubles she and partner Chuang Chia-jung lost in the first round.

In May at the Italian Open, Erakovic (ranked World No.41) had one of the biggest wins of her singles career defeating World No.13 Sabine Lisicki in the first round.

She reached the second round of Mercury Insurance Open, Carlsbad losing to Dominika Cibulková, 2–6 4–6.

She missed all 2012 tournaments after the US Open due to a right hip injury.

2013

Erakovic at the 2013 Wimbledon Championships

Erakovic began her year at the 2013 ASB Classic, where she was defeated by Jamie Hampton in the second round of singles, and with Heather Watson as her partner, was defeated in the quarter-finals of the doubles.

Erakovic lost in the first round of the 2013 Australian Open to Alizé Cornet.

In February she won her first WTA singles tournament at the U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships in Memphis, Tennessee. In doing so, she became the first New Zealander to win a WTA tour singles title since Belinda Cordwell won the 1989 WTA Singapore Open. It was to be the last time the tournament was played. Watson suffered a bout of glandular fever in March, keeping her away from the circuit for two months, and Erakovic subsequently teamed up with former World No. 1 Cara Black. They had immediate success together, reaching the finals of three European tournaments, although unable to win any.

At the 2013 French Open, Erakovic upset 16th seed Dominika Cibulková in the second round before losing to 17th seed Sloane Stephens in the third round, thus missing out on a fourth round match against defending champion Maria Sharapova. She and Black made it to the quarter-finals of the doubles, losing in three sets to second seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.

She was beaten by Laura Robson in the third round at Wimbledon, after being a set up and serving for the match. Seeded 11th, she and Black were beaten in the second round of the doubles by Eugenie Bouchard and Petra Martic, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-4).

At the US Open she lost her first round singles match to María Teresa Torró Flor 6-0, 6-4, while she and Black, this time seeded 13th, lost in a marathon third round doubles match, again to the second seeds (this time Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina).

Seeded sixth, she reached the final of the Challenge Bell in Quebec City for the second time, defeating Mallory Burdette, Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová (thus avenging her defeat by that player in the 2011 final), Ajla Tomljanovic and Christina McHale before losing in straight sets to Lucie Šafářová, 6-4, 6-3.

Erakovic lost in qualifying in both the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo and the China Open in Beijing. Her doubles partnership with Black had now ended, as Black joined forces with Sania Mirza to win both those tournaments and announced that the new partners intended to stay together through 2014. Although Erakovic was drawn to play doubles in Beijing with Elena Vesnina, she withdrew from that competition and all tournaments for the remainder of the year after the death of her grandmother.

2014

Erakovic at the 2014 Nürnberger Versicherungscup

At her home tournament in Auckland, the 2014 ASB Classic, Erakovic was reunited briefly with Cara Black in the doubles. Seeded second, they lost in the first round to local wild-card entry Sacha Jones and Abigail Guthrie. Erakovic then lost to Lauren Davis in the first round of singles. She also lost in the first round of both singles and doubles at the Hobart International, the latter to eventual winners Monica Niculescu and Klára Zakopalová when top seed with partner Zheng Jie.

At the Australian Open, Erakovic beat 21st seed Sorana Cîrstea in the first round of the singles, but lost to Kazakh qualifier Zarina Diyas 6-4, 6-0, in the second round. She and Zheng Jie were seeded 10th in the doubles, but lost 6-3, 6-3 in the first round to the French pair of Alizé Cornet and Caroline Garcia. At the Open GDF Suez in Paris, Erakovic again lost in the first round of both doubles (when paired with Petra Martic) and singles, trailing 3-6, 0-3 in the latter against Daniela Hantuchová before retiring with a back injury.

Erakovic then represented New Zealand at the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Group II Round Robin Tournament in Astana, Kazakhstan. She had singles victories over opponents from Pakistan, Iran and India, winning each in straight sets and losing only four games in total, before losing her only doubles match when partnered with Abigail Guthrie. They were beaten 7-5, 6-1, by Indians Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare.

Her next tournament was the 2014 Qatar Total Open, where she again lost in the first round of both singles (to 12th seed Samantha Stosur) and doubles. In the latter, she and Petra Martic lost in a super tie-break to Anna-Lena Grönefeld and Mirjana Lučić-Baroni. With the Memphis tournament no longer in existence, and not playing in either of the tournaments now held during the third week of February, Erakovic dropped 17 places in the WTA singles rankings (from 52 to 69) as the points gained from her win in 2013 were lost.

Erakovic improved her 2014 record by reaching the quarter-finals in the singles at the 2014 Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco, Mexico. After a win over local wild card Ana Sofia Sánchez, she defeated sixth seed Bojana Jovanovski before losing 6-4, 7-5 to top seed (and eventual tournament winner) Dominika Cibulková in a match where both players struggled to consistently hold serve. Her doubles partner for this tournament, Ashleigh Barty, unfortunately had a gastrointestinal illness before the first round and the pair had to withdraw from the competition.

She then moved north to Indian Wells, California, where she and Petra Martic won their first round doubles in the 2014 BNP Paribas Open but lost in the next round to fourth seeds Květa Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik. She was well-beaten in her first singles match by Monica Niculescu. Her next tournament was the 2014 Sony Open Tennis in Miami, Florida, where she lost to qualifier Coco Vandeweghe in the first round of the singles and then, with Petra Martic, lost in a super tie-break to second seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the first round of doubles. Having been eliminated so quickly, she took the opportunity to play in a $50,000 clay court ITF tournament in Osprey, Florida. Seeded first, she went all the way to the final before losing 6-2, 6-3 to second seed Anna Schmiedlova.

The 2014 Family Circle Cup is the first WTA event of the season to be played on clay, and Erakovic scored what was described as one of her finest wins on that surface when beating former World No 3 Nadia Petrova in three sets in the first round. In the second round, however, she was well-beaten by the No 1 ranked junior in the world, Belinda Bencic. In the doubles, she and new partner Arantxa Parra Santonja were leading 5-4 over the No 1 pair in the world, Su-Wei Hsieh and Shuai Peng, before Peng suffered an abdominal strain and was forced to retire. Their second round (quarter-final) was the complete opposite, as they quickly lost to Anabel Medina Garrigues and Yaroslava Shvedova, who would go on to defeat the Chan sisters from Chinese Taipei in the final.

Erakovic returned to New Zealand for a holiday through most of April, before resuming as top seed at the $50,000 clay court ITF tournament in Indian Harbour Beach, Florida. She beat two qualifiers before losing to Anett Kontaveit in the quarter-finals. Moving over to Europe, she was beaten in the first round of qualifying singles for the 2014 Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome by Julia Görges. She progressed to the doubles in the quarter-finals, where, for the second time in the space of a few months, she came up against Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik. She and partner Arantxa Parra Santonja were beaten 6-4, 6-4 by the fourth seeds, who went on to win the tournament after Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci had to retire when Errani injured her hip. They were second seeds in the doubles at the 2014 Nürnberger Versicherungscup, their last tournament before the French Open, but were well-beaten in the first round by Anna-Lena Grönefeld and Antonia Lottner. Erakovic then lost her first round singles match to top seed Angelique Kerber.

At Roland Garros for the 2014 French Open, Erakovic had an easy win over Nadiya Kichenok in the first round, before losing 6-4, 6-4 to fifth seed Petra Kvitova in the second round. She and Parra Santonja were seeded 16th in the doubles, and had straight sets wins in the first three rounds as they progressed to the quarter-finals, a performance which equalled Erakovic's run from the previous year. Up against the higher-ranked, but unseeded, Lucie Hradecká and Michaëlla Krajicek, they led the first set 5-2 before losing five games in a row, and were eventually defeated 7-5, 6-3.

The grass season in England began badly for Erakovic, when she was beaten in the first round of the Aegon Classic in Birmingham by Timea Babos. Her original opponent, qualifier Irina Falconi, had withdrawn due to a viral illness, and Babos entered the main draw as a lucky loser. Erakovic and Parra Santonja were beaten in the first round of the doubles by the vastly experienced pair of Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond. In their final lead-up to Wimbledon, the pair moved across the North Sea to take part in the 2014 Topshelf Open at Rosmalen in The Netherlands. Erakovic's opening singles match was a titanic struggle against qualifier Coco Vandeweghe, who sent down 19 aces on the way to winning the match in a third set tie-breaker. Vandeweghe eventually won the singles title, defeating Zheng Jie in the final.

The doubles was a different story, as Erakovic and Parra Santonja moved steadily through the tournament with a series of straight sets wins, beating top seeds Andrea Hlaváčková and Zheng Jie in the semi-final. Six years to the day after winning this tournament with Michaëlla Krajicek as her partner, Erakovic stood triumphant again after a fairytale reversal of fortune during the final. Krajicek and Kristina Mladenovic sped through the first set 6-0 in under 20 minutes, had the lead at 5-2 and held two match points at 5-4 in the second set, before Erakovic and Parra Santonja broke back to force a tie-breaker, which they won 7-5. The super tie-break third set ebbed and flowed as only seven of the 18 points went to the server, with Erakovic and Parra Santonja finally prevailing 10-8. Shortly afterwards Erakovic revealed that she had parted company with long-time coach Christian Zahalka.

Erakovic scored the very first point of the tournament as play began at Wimbledon but, as she did with Belinda Bencic at Charleston, again found a stumbling block in a top junior. This time it was Croatian Ana Konjuh who prevailed in three sets, 6-3, 4-6, 6-0. Ranked 17th in the doubles, and therefore one place outside the seedings, Erakovic and Parra Santonja were drawn in the first round against the 12th seeds Anabel Medina Garrigues and Yaroslava Shvedova, who had defeated them so easily at Charleston. Although this match was much closer, the result was the same, with Medina Garrigues and Shvedova winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. A disappointing week at Wimbledon came to a close when she lost in the first round of the mixed doubles. Partnered with South African Raven Klaase, there was only one service break in the entire match against the British pair of Dominic Inglot and Johanna Konta. That was enough to produce a final scoreline of 7-6 (7-5), 6-4. For the trivia buffs, it was the first time on the senior tour that Erakovic had played against someone with the same birthday, Inglot also being born on 6 March.

Back in New Zealand for a short break after Wimbledon, Erakovic announced that she would be working with Parra Santonja's coach, Eduardo Nicolas, on a trial basis until the end of the US Open. Clearly refreshed after her time off, Erakovic resumed in the 2014 Citi Open in Washington, D.C. Playing only in the singles, she defeated Krystina Pliskova, Shelby Rogers and Bojana Jovanovski on her way to the semi-final, where she was drawn against Kurumi Nara. After taking the first set to love she was able to convert only three further opportunities to break Nara's serve, whilst dropping her own service five times, and eventually lost 6-0, 4-6, 4-6.

One disadvantage of getting to the last round or two when relatively lowly ranked is that players may miss their chance at a bigger tournament following immediately afterwards. This was the case with the 2014 Rogers Cup in Canada, as Erakovic was unable to reach Montreal in time for her first singles qualifying match. In an ironic twist of fate, it was Parra Santonja who took her place (albeit a losing one). Erakovic had to be content with a start in the doubles, but had a new partner in Andreja Klepač. They lost in the first round to the Czech twins Karolina and Krystina Pliskova, the latter getting some revenge for her singles defeat a week earlier.

The following week saw Erakovic in the 2014 Western & Southern Open, the next Premier 5 tournament, but she lost in the first round of qualifying singles to Shahar Peer. Reunited with Parra Santonja in the doubles, they won their first match, but lost 6-3, 6-2 in the second round to eighth seeds Alla Kudryavtseva and Anastasia Rodionova.

The last tournament before the U.S. Open was the Premier level 2014 Connecticut Open, where Erakovic faced Caroline Garcia in the first round of qualifying singles. Garcia, the third seed in the qualifying tournament, was the winner for the first time in their four meetings, taking the match in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, with only one service break in each set. The doubles was a different story, with Erakovic and Parra Santonja having nail-biting wins in all three matches on the way to the final. They did not manage even one point against the serve of Garbiñe Muguruza and Carla Suárez Navarro in the first set of their first-round match, but eventually did enough to win 10-6 in the super tie-break. The second match (quarter-final) was against their old foes Anabel Medina Garrigues and Yaroslava Shvedova. Down 0-5, 0-40 in the first set, they were able to win that game (although losing the next) before going on to win another super tie-break 10-7. It became three super tie-breaks from three when beating Caroline Garcia and Monica Niculescu in the semi-final, clawing their way back from 3-8 in the final set to level at 9-all, then going on to win 11-9.

The final saw another titanic struggle, this time against Andreja Klepač and Sílvia Soler Espinosa. After breaking Soler Espinosa's serve to lead 4-3, Erakovic and Parra Santonja both dropped service games to lose the first set 7-5. They recovered to win the second set 6-4, coming back from 0-40 in the last game of the set. Up 7-5 at the second change of ends in the super tie-break, they did not win another point as Klepač and Soler Espinosa wrapped up the match 10-7.

As the US Open began, it was announced that Erakovic had been voted onto the WTA Players' Council, replacing Akgul Amanmuradova as the representative of the 51-100 Ranking Category. She celebrated by recording her first ever singles victory at Flushing Meadows, beating 20th seed and former US and French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets. In the second round she faced Elena Vesnina, and lost a three-set match in just under two and a half hours. The final score was 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, but Erakovic would have rued her missed opportunities in the first set when Vesnina came from 2-5 down to win five successive games. In the doubles, Erakovic and Parra Santonja were again ranked 17th, just as at Wimbledon (had they won at New Haven, they would have been seeded 15th). They started with a comfortable win against the teenage American wildcards Katerina Stewart (who would progress all the way to the semi-finals in the Girls' Singles) and Louisa Chirico, but the second round match against Muguruza and Suárez Navarro saw the Connecticut Open result reversed, with the Spanish 12th seeds prevailing 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-3.

Erakovic missed the next week of tournaments after the US Open due to taking a training block. These included the 2014 Coupe Banque Nationale in Quebec, where she had been runner-up a year earlier, and the loss of points carrying over from that result saw her drop from 76 to 103 in the singles rankings, taking her outside the top 100 for the first time in four years. She resumed a week later in the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, becoming top seed in the qualifying tournament after Coco Vandeweghe was promoted to the main draw. She raced through her three matches to qualify for the tournament proper, dropping only eight games in total. Her first round match was against fifth seed (and World No. 12) Sara Errani, who sped away to an early 4-0 lead. From there it was all one-way traffic, as Erakovic broke back and then shut out the Italian almost completely, winning 12 of the next 13 games to take the match 6-4, 6-1, the only hiccup being when she dropped her own service in the second game of the second set. Errani had started with an amazing 39 consecutive first service points, and the only times she needed a second serve in the first set were the first two points of her fifth service game. Erakovic was unable to repeat her effort in the second round, falling to Australian left-hander Casey Dellacqua 6-2, 6-4. Her second serve deserted her completely, as she won only three out of 17 in the entire match. She also struggled to break Dellacqua's serve, winning only one of six break points in the first set and one of four in the second. With Erakovic only playing singles in this tournament, Parra Santonja teamed up with Jelena Janković to go as far as the semi-finals in the doubles.

Two days later Erakovic was in Wuhan for the 2014 Wuhan Open, only to find herself with a walkover win in the first round of qualifying. Her scheduled opponent, Varvara Lepchenko, was still competing in the 2014 Kia Korea Open, where she made it all the way to the final before losing to Karolina Pliskova. Erakovic won her second qualifying match to reach the main draw, but lost in the first round to fellow qualifier Karin Knapp in three sets. In the doubles she had a new partner in Stefanie Voegele, and they won the first set comfortably (6-2) against Anna-Lena Grönefeld and Alicja Rosolska. All four players dropped their first service game in the second set, but Voegele dropped her next service game as well, and Grönefeld served out the set to win 6-4. She and Rosolska then dropped only one point while serving in the super tie-break to run out the winners 10-5.

Next stop on the tour was the last Premier Mandatory tournament of the season, the 2014 China Open (tennis) in Beijing. A very easy winner in the first round of qualifying singles over María Teresa Torró Flor, she was then beaten 6-3, 6-3 by Mona Barthel in the second round. Reunited with Parra Santonja in the doubles, they faced yet another super tie-break third set in the first round, this time against Chuang Chia-jung and Olga Govortsova. They were able to break serve only once as they eventually went down 10-6.

Erakovic returned to Europe for the last two weeks of the regular tournament season, starting with the 2014 Generali Ladies Linz in Austria, where she had won the doubles title in 2011. In her first singles match she defeated eighth seed Caroline Garcia (her 300th tour singles win), and followed that with an easy win over Klára Koukalová (formerly Zakopalová). Her quarter-final match was against Camila Giorgi, who beat her 6-3, 7-5 after winning the final four games, the last when Erakovic dropped her serve to love. Seeded second in the doubles for this tournament, she had a new partner in Anabel Medina Garrigues who, with Yaroslava Shvedova, had been such a thorn in her side earlier in the year. After an easy first-round win, they scored a super tie-break win in the second round (quarter-final) over Paula Kania and Valeria Solovyeva after sharing the first two sets. This match was notable more for the fact that the players dropped 10 consecutive service games after Erakovic and Medina Garrigues had each held serve to lead 2-1 in the first set. In the semi-final they lost in straight sets to Garcia and Annika Beck, with Medina Garrigues unable to hold her service at any time in the match - in complete contrast to Erakovic, who dropped only three points in the first set and one in the second.

Playing singles only, Erakovic finished her WTA season in the 2014 BGL Luxembourg Open, where she was beaten 6-3, 6-4 in the first round by Polona Hercog.

2015

Erakovic started the new year, as usual, in the 2015 ASB Classic in Auckland, still with Eduardo Nicolas as her coach, but with a new doubles partner in Monica Puig. They made a shaky start to their career together, needing a super tie-break to win their first match, and then went down to second seeds Andrea Hlaváčková and Lucie Hradecká, again through a super tie-break, in the second round (quarter-finals). Drawn against each other in the singles, it was Erakovic who prevailed in three sets, and was then defeated by eventual semi-finalist Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová, again in three sets.

She won her first singles qualifying match at the 2015 Apia International Sydney, but lost her second to defending doubles champion Tímea Babos in straight sets. Reunited with Arantxa Parra Santonja in the doubles, the partnership went out in the first round to Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sania Mirza, losing in straight sets in under an hour. The following week saw the start of the first Grand Slam event of the year, the 2015 Australian Open. Drawn against 24th seed Garbiñe Muguruza in the first round, Erakovic broke the Spaniard's serve early, but was in turn broken twice to lose the first set 7-5. Muguruza then raced through the second set in just over 20 minutes to win 6-0, with Erakovic winning only nine of the 34 points played. Reunited with Puig in the doubles, they were drawn against 13th seeds Michaëlla Krajicek and Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová. Both pairs dropped serve twice in the opening set, before a marathon 20 point tiebreak was decided 11-9 in favour of Erakovic and Puig. It was their fourth set point, and Krajicek and Záhlavová-Strýcová had had two as well. The second set also went to a tiebreak, with each pair again dropping serve twice, but this time Krajicek and Záhlavová-Strýcová prevailed 8-6, converting their second set point. There were break points galore in the third set, but it was the seeded pair who finished the stronger, coming from 0-40 in the ninth game to reel off five straight points and take the set and the match 6-7 (9-11), 7-6 (8-6), 6-3.

For players not involved in the Fed Cup, there was a week's break before the next round of tournaments. Erakovic and Puig headed to the 2015 PTT Thailand Open in Pattaya. Although they lost as a combination in the first round of the doubles, both progressed all the way to the semi-finals in the singles. Erakovic started with a win over Luksika Kumkhum, the only noteworthy action being in the very last game which, after 15 minutes and 11 deuces, saw Erakovic break the Thai's serve to win 6-2, 6-2. She raced through her second match to beat Yuliya Beygelzimer 6-1, 6-1, before scoring one of her best-ever wins in the quarter-final, as she defeated former World No 2 Vera Zvonareva in three sets, 2-6, 7-6 (8-6), 7-5. She had saved three match points along the way. That match lasted 2 hours and 38 minutes, but her semi-final was to be even longer, as it took Daniela Hantuchová 2 hours and 46 minutes to finally see of the challenge from the New Zealander. The final score was 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3). Erakovic had served for the match at 5-3 in the final set, but lost the game to love. She dropped her serve again in the next game, allowing Hantuchová back into the match, and then held match point twice in the 10th game of the final set, but Hantuchová's serve was too strong in each case. Puig had an even longer battle before going down to Ajla Tomljanović, who would go on to lose to Hantuchová in the final.

Her run at this tournament had exactly the same consequences for Erakovic as her experience in Washington the year before - she was unable to compete in the qualifying rounds of the next tournament, the 2015 Dubai Tennis Championships. She was, however, able to sign up for doubles, partnered this time with Heather Watson, with whom she had won consecutive tournaments in the USA in 2012.

Equipment and apparel

Erakovic currently uses Wilson K Blade tennis rackets and wears Fila apparel.

Significant finals

Premier Mandatory/Premier 5 finals

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	2013	Madrid	Clay	Cara Black	Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Lucie Šafářová	2–6, 4–6

WTA career finals

Singles: 4 (1 title, 3 runners-up)

Winner — Legend Grand Slam tournaments (0–0) WTA Tour Championships (0–0) Tier I / Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (0–0) Tier II / Premier (0–0) Tier III, IV & V / International (1–3)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1.	18 September 2011	Challenge Bell, Quebec City, Canada	Carpet (i)	Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová	6–4, 1–6, 0–6
Runner-up	2.	25 February 2012	Memphis International, Memphis, United States	Hard (i)	Sofia Arvidsson	3–6, 4–6
Winner	1.	23 February 2013	U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships, Memphis, United States	Hard (i)	Sabine Lisicki	6–1, retired
Runner-up	3.	15 September 2013	Challenge Bell, Quebec City, Canada	Carpet (i)	Lucie Šafářová	4–6, 3–6

Doubles: 16 (8 titles, 8 runners-up)

Winner — Legend Grand Slam tournaments (0–0) WTA Tour Championships (0–0) Tier I / Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 (0–1) Tier II / Premier (1–1) Tier III, IV & V / International (7–6)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	1.	24 May 2008	İstanbul Cup, Istanbul, Turkey	Clay	Polona Hercog	Jill Craybas Olga Govortsova	1–6, 2–6
Winner	1.	21 June 2008	Ordina Open, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Michaëlla Krajicek	Liga Dekmeijere Angelique Kerber	6–3, 6–2
Winner	2.	4 October 2008	Japan Open Tennis Championships, Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Jill Craybas	Ayumi Morita Aiko Nakamura	4–6, 7–5, [10–6]
Winner	3.	26 October 2008	Fortis Championships Luxembourg, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Hard	Sorana Cîrstea	Vera Dushevina Mariya Koryttseva	2–6, 6–3, [10–8]
Winner	4.	14 February 2010	PTT Pattaya Open, Pattaya City, Thailand	Hard	Tamarine Tanasugarn	Anna Chakvetadze Ksenia Pervak	7–5, 6–1
Runner-up	2.	24 July 2010	Banka Koper Slovenia Open, Portorož, Slovenia	Hard	Anna Chakvetadze	Maria Kondratieva Vladimíra Uhlířová	4–6, 6–2, [7–10]
Runner-up	3.	8 January 2011	ASB Classic, Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Sofia Arvidsson	Květa Peschke Katarina Srebotnik	3–6, 0–6
Winner	5.	16 October 2011	Generali Ladies Linz, Linz, Austria	Hard (i)	Elena Vesnina	Julia Görges Anna-Lena Grönefeld	7–5, 6–1
Runner-up	4.	14 January 2012	Moorilla Hobart International, Hobart, Australia	Hard	Chuang Chia-jung	Irina-Camelia Begu Monica Niculescu	7–6(7–4), 6–7(4–7), [5–10]
Winner	6.	16 July 2012	Bank of the West Classic, Stanford, United States	Hard	Heather Watson	Jarmila Gajdošová Vania King	7–5, 7–6(9–7)
Winner	7.	25 August 2012	Texas Tennis Open, Dallas, United States	Hard	Heather Watson	Līga Dekmeijere Irina Falconi	6–3, 6–0
Runner-up	5.	11 May 2013	Mutua Madrid Open, Madrid, Spain	Clay	Cara Black	Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Lucie Šafářová	2–6, 4–6
Runner-up	6.	25 May 2013	Internationaux de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France	Clay	Cara Black	Kimiko Date-Krumm Chanelle Scheepers	4–6, 6–3, [12–14]
Runner-up	7.	16 June 2013	AEGON Classic, Birmingham, United Kingdom	Grass	Cara Black	Ashleigh Barty Casey Dellacqua	5–7, 4–6
Winner	8.	21 June 2014	Topshelf Open, Rosmalen, Netherlands	Grass	Arantxa Parra Santonja	Michaëlla Krajicek Kristina Mladenovic	0-6, 7-6(7-5), [10-8]
Runner-up	8.	23 August 2014	Connecticut Open, New Haven, United States	Hard	Arantxa Parra Santonja	Sílvia Soler Espinosa Andreja Klepač	5–7, 6–4, [7–10]

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 17 (12–5)

$100,000 tournaments

$75,000 tournaments

$50,000 tournaments

$25,000 tournaments

$10,000 tournaments

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	6 March 2005	Warrnambool, Australia	Grass	Daniella Dominikovic	6–3, 4–6, 6–4
Runner-up	1.	13 March 2005	Benalla, Australia	Grass	Yuan Meng	4–6, 4–6
Winner	2.	20 March 2005	Yarrawonga, Australia	Grass	Emily Hewson	6–3, 4–6, 6–4
Winner	3.	3 September 2006	Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands	Clay	Andrea Petkovic	4–6, 6–2, 7–5
Winner	4.	15 October 2006	Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Casey Dellacqua	6–1, 0–6, 6–4
Winner	5.	29 October 2006	Beijing, China	Hard	Alla Kudryavtseva	6–2, 6–1
Runner-up	2.	29 July 2007	La Coruña, Spain	Hard	Neuza Silva	6–0, 5–7, 3–6
Runner-up	3.	5 August 2007	Vigo, Spain	Hard	Olivia Sanchez	w/o
Winner	6.	14 October 2007	Rockhampton, Australia	Hard	Sophie Ferguson	7–6(7–5), 7–5
Winner	7.	21 October 2007	Gympie, Australia	Hard	Sophie Ferguson	6–4, 6–3
Winner	8.	9 February 2008	Mildura, Australia	Grass	Chang Kai-chen	6–3, 6–1
Runner-up	4.	17 February 2008	Berri, Australia	Grass	Nicole Kriz	4–6, 6–4, 6–7(3–7)
Winner	9.	7 June 2008	Surbiton, England	Grass	Anne Keothavong	6–4, 6–2
Winner	10.	7 March 2011	Irapuato, Mexico	Hard	Andreja Klepač	7–5, 6–4
Winner	11.	28 March 2011	Pelham, USA	Clay	Renata Voráčová	6–4, 2–6, 6–1
Winner	12.	4 April 2011	Jackson, USA	Clay	Ajla Tomljanović	6–1, 6–2
Runner-up	5.	30 March 2014	Osprey, USA	Clay	Anna Schmiedlova	2-6, 3-6

Doubles: 9 (6–3)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	1.	29 October 2006	Beijing, China	Hard	Raquel Kops-Jones	Ji Chunmei Sun Shengnan	2–6, 2–6
Winner	1.	30 June 2007	Padova, Italy	Clay	Maret Ani	Vanessa Henke Andrea Petkovic	6–4, 6–4
Winner	2.	28 July 2007	La Coruña, Spain	Hard	Melanie South	Andrea Hlaváčková Justine Ozga	6–1, 4–6, 6–4
Winner	3.	15 December 2007	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Hard	Monica Niculescu	Yuliana Fedak Anna Lapushchenkova	7–6(7–1), 6–4
Winner	4.	7 February 2008	Mildura, Australia	Grass	Nicole Kriz	Monique Adamczak Christina Wheeler	6–4, 6–4
Winner	5.	17 February 2008	Berri, Australia	Grass	Nicole Kriz	Shannon Golds Emelyn Starr	2–6, 7–6(7–4), [10–3]
Winner	6.	28 November 2009	Toyota, Japan	Carpet	Tamarine Tanasugarn	Akari Inoue Akiko Yonemura	6–1, 6–4
Runner-up	2.	16 April 2010	Johannesburg, South Africa	Hard	Tamarine Tanasugarn	Vitalia Diatchenko Eirini Georgatou	3–6, 7–5, [14–16]
Runner-up	3.	9 May 2010	Fukuoka, Japan	Carpet	Alexandra Panova	Misaki Doi Kotomi Takahata	4–6, 4–6

Junior Grand Slam Finals

Doubles (2 Titles, 2 Runners-Up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-Up	2004	Wimbledon Championships	Grass	Monica Niculescu	Victoria Azarenka Volha Havartsova	6-4, 3-6, 6-4
Winner	2004	US Open	Hard	Michaella Krajicek	Monica Niculescu Mădălina Gojnea	7-6(4), 6-0
Winner	2005	Australian Open	Hard (Rebound Ace)	Victoria Azarenka	Nikola Frankova Agnes Szavay	6-0, 6-2
Runner-Up	2005	Wimbledon Championships	Grass	Monica Niculescu	Victoria Azarenka Agnes Szavay	6-7(5), 6-2, 6-0

Singles Performance timeline

Tournament	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	W–L
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	Q2	Q1	2R	1R	Q2	2R	1R	2R	1R	3–6
French Open	A	Q2	Q1	2R	A	A	1R	1R	3R	2R		4–5
Wimbledon	A	A	Q1	3R	A	Q2	2R	2R	3R	1R		6–5
US Open	Q3	A	Q3	1R	A	A	1R	1R	1R	2R		1–5
Win–Loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	3–3	1–1	0–1	1–3	2–4	4–4	3–4	0–1	14–21
Olympic Games
Summer Olympics	Not Held			1R	Not Held			1R	Not Held			0–2
WTA Premier Mandatory Tournaments
Indian Wells	A	A	Q1	Q1	1R	A	A	1R	1R	1R		0–4
Miami	A	A	A	3R	1R	A	A	2R	1R	1R		3–5
Madrid	Not Held				A	A	A	1R	Q1	A		0–1
Beijing	Not Tier I				A	A	A	A	Q2	Q2		0–0
WTA Premier 5 Tournaments
Doha	Not Tier I			A	Not Held		NP5	A	A	1R	NP5	0–1
Dubai	Not Tier I				A	A	A	Not Prem 5			A	0–0
Rome	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	A	Q1		1–1
Canada	A	A	A	A	A	Q1	Q1	A	A	A		0–0
Cincinnati	Not Tier I				A	A	A	A	2R	Q1		1–1
Tokyo	A	A	A	1R	A	A	A	A	Q2	NP5		0–1
Wuhan	Not Tier I or Premier 5									1R		0–1
Year end ranking	213	160	161	60	232	324	61	66	48	77		5–15

Doubles Performance timeline

Tournament	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	W–L
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	A	A	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R	0–7
French Open	A	A	A	1R	A	A	A	2R	QF	QF		7–4
Wimbledon	A	A	A	1R	A	1R	SF	3R	2R	1R		7–6
US Open	A	A	A	QF	A	A	1R	1R	3R	2R		6–5
Win–Loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	4–3	0–1	0–2	4–3	2–4	6–4	4–4	0–1	20–22
WTA Premier Mandatory Tournaments
Indian Wells	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	2R	2R		3–3
Miami	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	A	1R		0–2
Madrid	Not Held				A	A	A	2R	F	A		4–2
Beijing	Not Tier I				A	A	A	A	A	1R		0–1
WTA Premier 5 Tournaments
Doha	Not Tier I			A	Not Held		NP5	A	A	1R	NP5	0–1
Dubai	Not Tier I				A	A	A	Not Prem 5			2R	1–1
Rome	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	A	QF		2–2
Canada	A	A	A	A	A	1R	2R	A	A	1R		1–3
Cincinnati	Not Tier I				A	A	A	A	1R	2R		1–2
Tokyo	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	Not Prem 5		0–1
Wuhan	Not Tier I or Premier 5									1R		0–1
Year end ranking	677	274	258	43	351	82	48	54	28	42		12–19

External links

• Official website of Marina Erakovic
• Marina Erakovic at the Women's Tennis Association