Tennis: Erakovic out in second round to 'smart play'

Marina Erakovic. Photo / AP

New Zealand tennis No1 Marina Erakovic has suffered a "tough loss" in the second round of the singles at the US Open in New York after looking like she had the measure of her opponent.

Erakovic lost an up-and-down match to Russian Elena Vesnina 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 in two hours 27 minutes after looking comfortable in the first set at 5-2 ahead.

However the Russian then won her own serve to love and stormed back into the match winning five games in a row to take the set and then the first game of the second set as well.

"It's a tough loss. I think at that stage I was content to hit those balls back, that was the error for me. She got into the game more and got a rhythm," said Erakovic. "I felt I managed to get those balls back and rally with her. She took her chances and played more smart."

Erakovic seemed to find her feet, winning the set with relative ease as she broke Vesnina's serve four times.

Played in warm conditions with a breeze, both players held serve in the opening games of the final set before Erakovic was broken and then Vesnina, ranked at 56 in the world, compared to Erakovic's 82, traded service holds until 4-2 to the Russian.

Erakovic then served a double fault to give Vesnina a 5-2 lead before breaking her opponent's serve to love, which was perhaps an indication of the match, one moment a high and the next a low.

Erakovic was able to add one more game to her tally before Vesnina wrapped up the contest 6-4. Erakovic had been hoping to continue her run at the tournament where she beat former champ Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round, her first singles victory at the US Open.

"I had my chances but also gave myself a chance. It's a learning curve. In the last three or four years I don't think I've been as well in the mental game."

Erakovic and Spanish partner Arantxa Parra Santonja take on Spaniards Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro in the doubles second round.

"It's lots of fun to play with Arantxa. So hopefully we can play some good tennis in our next match."

In the doubles there was better news as Mike Venus secured a win with his partner Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 6-2 3-0 retired over Spain's Feliciano Lopez and Juan Monaco, the latter retiring with a wrist injury.

"It would have been great to finish the game, but it was just good to win. We started out tentative but played better the more we were out there," said Venus, who has competed in all four Grand Slams in doubles this year.

They now play the Italian pair of Daniele Bracciali and Andreas Seppi.