Tennis: Wins for Erakovic and Nielsen

Marina Erakovic has made the second round of the US$25,000 ($35,100) Challenger event at Hamanako, Japan.

Aucklander Erakovic, 16, beat Canada's Beier Ko 6-3, 6-1 in the first round of the singles and now takes on second-seed Shiho Hisamatsu, of Japan, who has a world ranking of 209.

Mark Nielsen made a good start at the US$10,000 Futures event at Shizuoka. The fourth seed beat China's Xin-Yuan Yu 6-4, 6-1 in the first round and faces Japanese qualifier Yasuo Miyazaki in the next round.

New Zealanders who bowed out in the first round were Rubin Statham and Adam Thompson.