Marina Erakovic ( ; ; born 6 March 1988) is a former tennis player from New Zealand. She achieved career-high rankings of 39 in singles and 25 in doubles, and won a singles title (at Memphis in February 2013) and eight doubles titles on the WTA Tour.
Personal life Born in Split, Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia), Erakovic emigrated with her family to Auckland, New Zealand, in 1994 at the age of six. She attended St Thomas's Primary School and Glendowie College in Auckland.
Junior years Erakovic and Monica Niculescu were the runners-up to Victoria Azarenka and Olga Govortsova in the 2004 Wimbledon girls' doubles, before Erakovic teamed with Michaëlla Krajicek to win the US Open title three months later, beating Niculescu and her Romanian teammate Mădălina Gojnea. Erakovic became the first player from New Zealand to win a Grand Slam title (singles or doubles) since James Greenhalgh and Steven Downs won the boys' doubles in 1993 at the French Open and Wimbledon. Erakovic then partnered Azarenka to an easy win in the 2005 Australian Open over Nikola Fraňková and Ágnes Szávay, and reunited with Niculescu to be runners-up at Wimbledon, defeated this time by Azarenka and Szávay.
Professional
2005–2007: New Zealand's No. 1 In 2005 and 2006, Erakovic won five singles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She was a wildcard entrant at the 2005 Auckland Open and lost in the second round. She lost also in the second round of qualifying at the 2006 French Open.
In 2007, she lost in the second round of qualifying at the Australian Open, the first round of qualifying for the French Open, the first round of qualifying in Wimbledon, and the third round of qualifying at the US Open. She again received a wildcard entry for the Auckland Open and was defeated once again in the second round.
At the end of 2007, aged 19, Erakovic became New Zealand's number one, ranked No. 153 in the WTA rankings.
2008–2009: Top 70; after injury out of the top 200 In 2008, Erakovic made significant progress in her tennis career. At the Auckland Open, she reached the semifinals, marking the first time a New Zealander had advanced this far in the event since 1990. She also made her debut in the Grand Slam tournaments, reaching the second round at the Australian Open and the third round in Wimbledon, the latter being the first time for a New Zealand player since 1988. Erakovic's performance at Wimbledon helped her for a year-end ranking of world No. 66. Her season, however, was impacted by a hip injury, causing her to miss the French Open and withdraw from Wimbledon. By the end of the year, her ranking was outside the top 200.
2010–2011: More setback; reborn – top 70 again Erakovic competed in singles and doubles at the Auckland Open, losing in the first round in both draws. She then competed at the Australian Open, losing to eventual semifinalist Li Na in the first round. In doubles, she and partner Casey Dellacqua lost to 11th seeded Russian pair of Alla Kudryavtseva and Ekaterina Makarova, in the first round.
Erakovic's next tournament was the Pattaya Open where she again lost in the singles in the first round; however, she and partner Tamarine Tanasugarn won the doubles title, Erakovic's fourth.
She started the year with the Auckland Open where she again received a wildcard entry, and lost in the first round against Elena Vesnina. She then decided to compete on the ITF Circuit where she won three titles.
In the Australian Open, she defeated Irena Pavlovic in the first round of the qualifying draw, but then lost to Kurumi Nara.
Erakovic competed at the French Open where she won three straight matches in the qualifying draw against Ajla Tomljanović, Kurumi Nara and Petra Cetkovská. In the first round of the main draw, she lost to Arantxa Rus.
She made the qualification for Wimbledon, where she beat Chang Kai-chen in the first round, her first singles major match win since the Australian Open in 2009. However, she lost to Daniela Hantuchová in the second.
At Stanford, Erakovic recorded 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 three rounds of qualification.
Erakovic advanced to her first WTA Tour final at the Challenge Bell in Quebec City. En route to 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.
Her good results made her climb back to No. 61 in the rankings.
2012: Top 40 & next injury At the Australian Open, Erakovic beat Irena Pavlovic in the first round and lost to Christina McHale in the second, in three sets. In the doubles, she and her partner Chuang Chia-jung were eliminated in the first round.
In May at the Italian Open, Erakovic had another big wins in her singles career, defeating world No. 13, Sabine Lisicki, in the first round. Earlier, she had lost in the semifinals to Elena Vesnina at the Budapest Grand Prix in Hungary. This helped her recording a new career high of No. 39, on 7 May 2012.
She reached the second round of the Carlsbad Open, losing to Dominika Cibulková.
She missed all 2012 tournaments after the US Open due to a right hip injury. At the end of the year, she was world No. 67.
2013: Re-advance to top 50
Erakovic began the season at the Auckland Open, where she was defeated by Jamie Hampton in the second round, and with Heather Watson as her partner, was defeated in the quarterfinals of the doubles.
Erakovic lost in the first round of the Australian Open to Alizé Cornet. In February, she won her first WTA Tour singles tournament at the National Indoor Championships in Memphis. In doing so, she became the first New Zealander to win a WTA Tour singles title since Belinda Cordwell won the 1989 Singapore Open. It was to be the last time the tournament was played. Then Erakovic teamed up with former world No. 1, Cara Black, and they had immediate success together, reaching the finals of three European tournaments.
At the French Open, Erakovic upset 16th seed Dominika Cibulková in the second round,Erakovic beat Cibulkova in French Open before losing to 17th seed Sloane Stephens in the third round,Erakovic falls to Stephens at French Open – The West Australian thus missing out on a fourth-round match against defending champion Maria Sharapova. She and Black made it to the quarterfinals of the doubles, losing in three sets to second seeds Andrea Hlaváčková and Lucie Hradecká.
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 by Eugenie Bouchard and Petra Martić, 7–6, 7–6.
At the US Open, Erakovic lost her first-round singles match to María Teresa Torró Flor 0–6, 4–6, while she and Black, seeded 13th, lost in a marathon third-round doubles match, again to the second seeds (this time Makarova and Vesnina). Seeded sixth, she reached the final of the Challenge Bell for the second time, defeating Mallory Burdette, Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová, Ajla Tomljanović and Christina McHale before losing in straight sets to Lucie Šafářová.
Erakovic lost in qualifying in both the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo and the China Open in Beijing. Her doubles partnership with Black had 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.
The end of the year found her as 46th ranked player.
2014: Regress to top 80
In 2014, Marina Erakovic experienced mixed results in various tournaments. She began at the Auckland Open, facing early exits in both singles and doubles, the latter with partner Zheng Jie. At the Australian Open, Erakovic achieved a notable first-round win but was eliminated in the second round. Her doubles efforts alongside Zheng also ended in the first round. Erakovic's early-season struggles continued with first-round losses in both singles and doubles at indoor events in Paris and the Qatar.
Erakovic's performance improved at the Mexican Open, where she advanced to the quarterfinals in singles. However, her doubles campaign, this time with Ashleigh Barty, was cut short due to Barty's withdrawal. At Indian Wells and the Miami Open, she had limited success in doubles with Petra Martić and faced early singles exits.
Erakovic's clay-court season was highlighted by a win against Nadia Petrova at the Charleston Open, but she experienced early losses in subsequent tournaments. Another hip injury affected her performance, leading to a first-round defeat at the French Open.
The grass-court season was challenging with early exits at the Birmingham Classic and in Wimbledon. However, she achieved success at the Rosmalen Open, winning the doubles title with Arantxa Parra Santonja.
Erakovic ended her season with a series of tournaments across the globe, including the US Open, where she recorded her first singles win at the event. However, she faced early defeats in other tournaments, including the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo and the China Open.
Throughout the year, Erakovic experienced changes in coaching and partnered with different players in doubles. Despite some high points, her ranking fell outside the top 100 by the end of the year."
2015: Slow regress and out of top 100 Erakovic started the new year, as usual, in the Auckland Open, still with Eduardo Nicolás as her coach, but with a new doubles partner in Monica Puig.Erakovic and Puig join forces for doubles at Auckland - Stuff - retrieved 10-1-15 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 (quarterfinals). Drawn against each other in the singles, it was Erakovic who prevailed in three sets, and was then defeated by eventual semi-finalist Záhlavová-Strýcová, again in three sets.Erakovic loses in Auckland to Zahlavova Strycova - Stuff - retrieved 10-1-15
She won her first singles qualifying match at the Sydney International, 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 major event of the year, the Australian Open. Drawn against 24th seed Garbiñe Muguruza in the first round, she lost in straight sets. Reunited with Puig in the doubles, they were drawn against 13th seeds Krajicek and Záhlavová-Strýcová, again losing, by 7–6, 6–7, 3–6.Erakovic out of Australian Open NZ Herald – retrieved 27-1-15
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 Dubai Championships. She was, however, able to sign up for doubles, partnered this time with Heather Watson. They defeated the Chan sisters in the first round 13–11 in a super tie-break. In the second round they faced seventh seeds Caroline Garcia and Katarina Srebotnik. Watson dropped both her service games in the first set, and they each dropped one in the second set. Despite saving three match points on Srebotnik's serve at 2–5 in the second set, and winning the game, Erakovic and Watson were unable to prevent Garcia from serving out her last game to love to win the match 6–3, 6–4.