Tennis: Erakovic and Arvidsson through to semis

Marina Erakovic. Photo / Sarah Ivey

New Zealander Marina Erakovic and Swede Sofia Arvidsson today continued to belie their lack of experience as a doubles combination to make it through to the ASB Classic semifinals.

The pair, playing together in an event for the first time, upset doubles specialists and second seeds South African Natalie Grandin and Czech Vladimira Uhlirova 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 in Auckland.

It was their second straight-sets victory, after their first-up 6-2 6-1 result over Romania's Simona Halep and Austria's Tamira Paszek.

It also went some way to lifting Erakovic's spirits after her disappointing round-one singles defeat to Russian Elena Vesnina on Tuesday.

Erakovic said she and Arvidsson complemented each other well on court.

"She's very solid off the back and she serves well, so that can create a lot of chances for me because I like to be at the net and jump in there."

Their semifinal opponents tomorrow are another unseeded pairing, France's Alize Cornet and Romanian Edina Gallovits.

Cornet and Gallovits also pulled off an upset, putting out the No 4 seeds, Latvia's Liga Dekmeijere and German Anna-Lena Groenefeld, 6-4 6-2.

- NZPA