Marina Erakovic battles past Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in quarters – Budapest Grand Prix 2012
Seeded at number five in the tournament draw, Kiwi tennis ace, Marina Erakovic, had to go through some tough channels before sealing victory over the world number 60, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, on Thursday. 45th ranked
Erakovic hunted down the unseeded Czech in three gruelling sets to win the quarter-final battle of the Budapest Grand Prix, settling the final score line at 6-2, 1-6, 6-4, in her favour.
Being a part of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) International Tour clay court swing, the competition was played on the outdoor hard courts of Budapest, Hungary. It was the second time that these two talented players faced
each other on a tennis court and the fifth seed New Zealander avenged her prior loss from Strycova. The 26-year-old Czech outsmarted Erakovic in the final of a WTA event in Quebec City, Canada, last year to lift her only championship title.
It was the payback time for Erakovic on Thursday but it wasn’t an easy task for her to achieve. The fifth seeded contender blasted her way through the opening set to stamp her authority early in the match and broke her opponent
two out of three times to get the better of Strycova. Her opponent frittered away three priceless break opportunities in the first set and had to pay for it by gifting it to the Kiwi opponent at 2-6.
A huge momentum swing was witnessed in the following set of the match and Strycova came out with all her guns blazing. She suffered a serve break from Erakovic but nailed four cracking ones to dismantle the superior-ranked opponent
in the game. The unseeded Czech closed out the second set with a breadstick at 6-1, levelling the match scores at one-all.
Strycova couldn’t sustain her impetus in the decisive third set and her game through a terrible slump to allow Erakovic make her way back in business. The fifth seeded New Zealander secured 15 out of 21 points on her first serve
and broke the Czech opponent two out of three times to conclude her hard-fought victory at 6-4, marching into the semis of the Budapest Grand Prix in style.
"The match was tricky," Erakovic said. "We both started pretty nervously and had to adapt to the circumstances in the first set when it was a bit rainy. After I lost my rhythm a little bit in the second set, I started to play more
steady in the third and managed to adapt to her style and play more positively."
Erakovic will face the unseeded Russian contender, Elena Vesnina, in the round of four on Friday.
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