New Zealand tennis No 1 Marina Erakovic is through to her first WTA semifinal on clay after beating Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-2 1-6 6-4 at the US$220,000 Budapest Grand Prix this morning (NZT).
Erakovic will now play her doubles partner, Russian Elena Vesnina, in the final four showdown. The
pair pulled out of the doubles quarterfinals with Erakovic suffering a slight abdominal strain.
"I had to retire from the doubles this afternoon just to give me a better shot at tomorrow's semifinal,'' she said. "It's just one of those things that comes up and it's not a big issue but it's one that is an annoyance.''
She will be feeling good about the fact she beat Zahlavova Strycova, who beat Erakovic in the final of last year's WTA event in Quebec City, and also to do it on clay with the French Open coming up later this month.
She easily won the first set in 33 minutes before her game deserted her in the second set but she battled her way through an hour-long decider.
