8.15am
The New Zealand women's Federation Cup tennis team continued their charge towards the Asia/Oceania group one semifinals after beating China 2-1 in New Delhi today.
Unranked Marina Erakovic, 16, won her first singles match for New Zealand in straight sets, beating Wei-Juan Liu, ranked 689 in the world, 6-4 6-1.
Shelley Stephens,
ranked 392, dropped her singles in two tiebreak sets to Jie Hao, who is ranked 582, but the sister act of Eden and Paula Marama won the doubles in straight sets to finish the tie 6-4 6-0 over Yu Ying and Shu-Jing Yang.
New Zealand now have two wins from as many matches and face top-seeds Thailand tonight (NZ time).
A win would confirm a place in Saturday's semifinals.
Results:
Marina Erakovic beat Wei-Juan Liu 6-4 6-1
Jie Hao beat Shelley Stephens 7-6 7-6
Eden Marama/Paula Marama beat Yu Ying/ Shu-Jing Yang 6-4 6-0
- NZPA
