27 Jun 2012

Erakovic pleased with hard-fought first round victory

6:27 pm on 27 June 2012

Marina Erakovic gets a day off in London - the Wimbledon schedule's out and there's no sign of the New Zealand tennis number one, who was expected to be back on court overnight hoping to repeat her first up singles effort, in the opening round of the doubles.

Erakovic beat Poland's Urszula Radwanska in straight sets.

Erakovic and her Thai partner Tamarine Tanasugarn reached the semi-finals of the tournament last year but have a difficult first round encounter against the Chinese pair of Zheng Jie and Peng Shuai.

The Chinese combination beat Erakovic and her then-partner Monica Niculescu in the second round at the French Open recently.

Both the men's and women's world number ones Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova are on court overnight to play their second round singles matches, as is men's third seed Roger Federer.