Marina Erakovic ousts Elena Bovina in qualifying 2nd round – Mercury Open 2011
Sunday 31st of July 2011 saw the start of the Mercury Open 2011. The two players (Marina Erakovic and Elena Bovina) had never contested against each other in their professional career before and were meeting for the
first time at the La Costa Resort and Spa, Carlsbad, California. The 23-year-old, (Erakovic) clenched her victory from a set down 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-0.
Erakovic won the pitch and opened the set 1-0 by smashing an ace; however, during the set both the players struck two double faults. Erakovic had an average return and serve, along with, a poor defence she lost the match.
Mean while, Bovina was a better player and displayed a stronger defence which enabled her to break her opponent twice, as well as, winning 17% more than her opponent in total return points.
The second set was a reversal of events; Bovina’s accuracy had faltered four times and she struck four double faults. Her defence had slackened and she ended up endorsing two break points to her opponent while winning only 2 break
points out of the 6 that she faced.
On the contrary, Erakovic had enhanced her serving technique and was able to attain 22% points more than her previous set. Additionally, she saved 67% of her break points, along with, bagging a 100% of the break points she faced.
Both the players had won a set each and the third set was the final deciding factor as to who will qualify to the final qualifying round and into the main draw of the event. During the third set Erakovic had almost perfected her
defence and was able to return almost all her opponent’s shots, clenching 72% in her total return shots. Her total set points were nearly twice as that of Bovina’s.
Concluding, Erakovic had initially underestimated her opponent but by the second and third set surged past her opponent. The 23-year-old had managed to win the match with nineteen points more than the 28-year old Bovina’s in the
total match points won.
The Croatian born Kiwi (Marina Erakovic) played 3 Grand Slam events this year; starting off with the Australian Open where she defeated Irena Pavlovic in the first qualifying round but eventually lost to Kurumi Nara in the second.
At Roland Garros she qualified to the main draw of the event but lost in the first round to Arantxa Rus. She then moved to the British grass court season and her most notable performance was seen in June when Erakovic defeated Yaroslava Shvedova and Sara Errani
at Birmingham. She achieved her career high singles ranking of 49 on the 7th of July 2008.
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