New Zealand tennis No 1 Marina Erakovic says she hopes New Zealand young people will be inspired by her performance -- but that a lack of funding in the game might hold them back -- after just failing to reach the women's doubles finals at Wimbledon in a performance that put her in the New Zealand tennis history books.
The Aucklander and her Thai partner Tamarine Tanasugarn were knocked out 6-3, 4-6, 8-6 after an epic match against Australian Sam Stosur and German Sabine Lisicki that ran into a second day.
Erakovic and Tanasugarn resumed today at 5-5 in the third after the match was suspended last night because of darkness. The unfancied pair came within two points of putting out the No 3 seeds and reaching the finals against Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik but finally cracked after two hours and 30 minutes of resistance.
The NZ-Thai pair only reached the main draw after qualifying after another duo withdrew and Erakovic said: "It was a big, big effort by Tammy and me as lucky losers to make the semis - a great achievement and I'm proud of that."
She reflected on going out: "Lisicki has a good serve and we only had a small opportunity there to get a good strike on the ball. It was difficult to go in overnight at 5-5 and come out today. We started well but there were a couple of lapses on my serve and Sabine and Sam strike the ball so well you have to take the first opportunity -- and we didn't."
Erakovic looked back on a tournment that has returned her reputation to where it was before injury in 2009, saying: "I think I'm playing better tennis but if you look at my ranking (144) there is still a wee way to go. I'm playing better now than I did in 2008 [when her single ranking peaked at 49].
''I'm a stronger player and mentally stronger too. I've just started to play some good tennis and last year was a big climb up with a lot of ups and downs. But I think I'm playing well this year and it's something to build on."
She believes her return to fitness and form will be good for New Zealand tennis as a whole: "I hope this inspires youngsters to go and play. That's what's missing -- kids to play tennis. Cricket, rugby, netball are above tennis but tennis is a good sport but it's expensive and you have to travel a lot. But if you have talented kids and you can get the support and funding and they say look at Marina, she's at Wimbledon and I can get there too, I'd like to see that happen."
Erakovic believes funding has to improve first though: "The support isn't there at the moment. It's tough because tennis is not the most popular sport so there's not much funding and tennis is expensive to play. But when Chris Lewis and Onny Parun and Brett Steven were playing there was that interest and that got people motivated and that needs to happen again."
Erakovic flies home to Auckland tonight and is back on the circuit again at Stanford in the US on July 25.
She was putting doubles on the back burner to concentrate on singles this year but after winning half of Stg62,500 ($NZ126,031) for reaching the grand slam semis, the former Wimbledon junior finalist says her 34-year-old partner wants to play on for three or four more years and "who knows what will happen in that time".
Judy Chaloner was doubles winner at the Australian Open in 1979 and Belinda Cordwell reached the Australian Open singles semis in 1989, while Julie Richardson was a doubles quarter finalist at Wimbledon in 1987, 1992 and 1993.
Erakovic's former coach Chris Lewis was men's singles finalist in 1983 and a doubles quarter finalist in 1981. Before him Onny Parun (French doubles winner in 1974 and Australian doubles finalist in 1973), and Brian Fairlie (French Open doubles semi finalist in 1971) had grand slam success for New Zealand, which puts Erakovic's performance as the best by a New Zealander in a grand slam in the last 20 years.
Erakovic said: "There's been some great players like Belinda Cordwell and Brenda Perry and it's nice to be up there with them. I love to play tennis and I love to represent New Zealand and hopefully there are a lot more achievements to come."
