Tennis: No fears for Erakovic

New Zealand tennis No 2 Marina Erakovic has no fears leading into the first round of the Australian Open where she will face 16th seed Li Na of China tomorrow.

Erakovic, who has played only a few tournaments in the past 12 months thanks to a number of injuries, said Li Na was still very beatable despite being ranked inside the top 20.

"I feel fine. It's always tough with the draws - whoever I get, I get," said the 21-year-old New Zealander, who reached the second round of singles at the tournament in Melbourne last year.

"You want to win - the mindset is to win. She is a good player and has had good results, although the last couple of weeks for her haven't been that great. So I'll just see what happens."

"She definitely likes to play off the back and is very solid and moves well. I definitely have to be aggressive against her."

Erakovic has a current WTA ranking of 256 but is using her injury protected ranking of 83 to gain entry into the Open. Erakovic was beaten in the first round of the recent ASB Classic in Auckland by Frenchwoman Alize Cornet while Li Na was dumped out of the tournament by Kaia Kanepi, also in the first round.

Erakovic will play doubles at the Australian Open with local player Casey Dellacqua.

- NZPA