Tennis: The end of the Kiwi challenge

Greta Arn of Hungary in action against Julia Goerges. Photo / Richard Robinson

If Marina Erakovic is going to improve on her excellent year in 2011, she is going to have to become more ruthless.

The New Zealander lost 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Angelique Kerber, of Germany, in the first round of the ASB Classic in Auckland last night, but had every chance to win against an opponent ranked 32nd in the world to her 61st.

The third set was pivotal for Erakovic, who had three break points in the eighth game but failed to capitalise. To make matters worse she lost her own serve in the next game to effectively give the match away.

"I definitely had my chances," she said. "I thought I was playing well and had most of the momentum in the match.

"It's tough when you have those opportunities and you don't take them and you lose the match. It's one [defeat] that's pretty hard to take."

While the Auckland crowd won't be getting a Kiwi winner, there will be a new champion.

Greta Arn, who went on a giant-killing spree to win last year, could not work the same magic against Julia Goerges yesterday, though not for lack of trying.

When the 23-year-old Goerges, the new crowd favourite, hit her final winner after two hours and 24 minutes of painful slog, there were no histrionics, just fatigue and relief.

"When I arrived [in Auckland] I got sick and it's been a week," Goerges said. "When you have no energy it's pretty hard to beat someone as tough as Greta."

The rematch of last year's semifinal developed into a minor classic as the world No 64 came close to frustrating the fifth seed into submission.

Goerges seemed on the point of conceding in the third set, when she called for medical attention. "The doctor told me my blood pressure was low and gave me some tablets."

She returned to the fray and even broke Arn in the third game.

The Hungarian broke straight back and held serve for 3-2. At that point it seemed the only thing that could save the German was a nice, warm cup of harden-up as her will eroded with every point lost.

Maybe her coach provided it. Sascha Nensel came onto court, shared a bit of wisdom and watched as his embattled protege reeled off the next three games to win, eventually winning 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.

In the end, Goerges said, the difference was 10 sound minutes from her and 10 uncharacteristically error-filled minutes from Arn deep in the third set to win the match.

At times the quality was not great - both took to moon-balling for a while to frustrate each other - but the match had enough drama to breathe life into a tournament that had meandered through the first day-and-a-half.

While Goerges survives, another crowd-pleasing sideshow was eliminated when second-seed Peng Shuai defeated 2008 finalist Aravane Rezai in the preceding match 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Peng now meets Lucie Hradecka in the second round.

In the earlier matches, third-seed Svetlana Kuznetsova cruised into the second round, taking a low-risk approach in eliminating American qualifier Alison Riske 6-3, 6-2.

Kuznetsova now faces another American, the promising Christina McHale, and is on track to meet Yanina Wickmayer in the quarter-finals. The Belgian, who won here in 2010, yesterday sent Czech Karolina Pliskova packing 6-3, 6-4.

Monica Niculescu, Zheng Jie, Roberta Vinci and Elena Vesnina were the other first-round winners.

It is the first time since 2009 that all eight seeds have progressed to the second round.