Marina Erakovic. Photo / Greg Bowker.
New Zealand's Marina Erakovic has received a favourable draw at the French Open, the second tennis Grand Slam of the year starting tomorrow night.
The 29 year old Kiwi will face American Shelby Rogers in the first round. The pair have played each other twice before, most recently at the
Miami Open in March, where Rogers won a marathon three set match 4-6, 6-3, 7-6. Erakovic had won their only previous encounter in straight sets in Washington in 2014.
For a player who is down on confidence and without a WTA tour level match win in 2017, it could hardly have been a better draw for Erakovic. Although Rogers reached the quarter finals in Paris last year achieving her best Grand Slam result, she is not a big name and not a clay court specialist.
Erakovic who has slipped to 143 in the rankings heading into Roland Garros, will be drawing on memories from her best result in Paris in 2013 where she reached the third round after beating 16th seed Dominika Cibulkova. If she manages to win her first round match she could face Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, the 22nd seed who stunned the tennis world in January with her run through to the Australian Open semi-finals.
The women's draw has thrown up a first round cracker with defending champion Spain's Garbine Muguruza to meet 2010 champion, Italian Francesca Schiavone.
