Venus Williams of the U.S. reaches for a return during her match against Marina Erakovic of New Zealand at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Florida. Photo / Reuters.
Venus Williams of the U.S. reaches for a return during her match against Marina Erakovic of New Zealand at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Florida. Photo / Reuters.
New Zealand tennis player Marina Erakovic was outclassed by American Venus Williams in straights to exit in the third round of the US$3.7 million ($4.7 million) Sony Ericsson WTA tournament in Florida this morning (NZ time).
Wildcard entrant Erakovic went down 2-6 1-6 to the six-time Grand Slamwinner, struggling to match the power of one of the hardest hitters in the women's game.
The 20-year-old Aucklander lost her opening two service games to find herself on the back foot although she did manage to break the second service game of world No 7 Williams to trail 1-2 early in the first set.
Losing serve again straight away in a game that featured several deuces appeared to break the spirit of Erakovic, who lost eight of the next nine games.
The second set of the one hour eight minute match lasted just 23min as Williams raced out to a 5-0 lead.
Erakovic struggled with her serve, and Williams was brutal with her returns, winning 13 of 19 points on the New Zealander's second serve.
The result reflected the background of the pair.
While Erakovic is slowing establishing herself at WTA level, 27-year-old Williams has won 36 career titles and US$18.4 million ($23.2 million) in career prizemoney.
Erakovic's comparatively tiny bank balance will at least benefit to the tune of US$20,400.
Her excellent 2008 season continued at this tournament with a straight sets first round defeat of German world No 70 Martina Mueller and a 2-1 defeat of Dutch world No 34 Michaelle Krajicek.
The performance has guaranteed her a berth in the French Open in May, the first New Zealand woman to contest a Grand Slam since Bulgarian-born Pavlina Nola in 2002.
This month Erakovic's ranking climbed to a high of 98 when she reached the semifinals of the WTA event at Memphis, losing to former world No 1 Lindsay Davenport of the United States.
That was the Aucklander's second semifinal appearance of the year, having gone on a dream run at her home tournament in January.
