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Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S women’s tennis doubles specialist Cara Black and her partner New Zealander Marina Erakovic were first round casualties at a WTA and ATP Masters hardcourt tournament at Cincinnati in Ohio, United States, late on Tuesday night. According to reports from Cincinnati, Black and Erakovic lost a tense first-round women’s doubles tie, going down 7-6, 7-6 to German pair Angelique Kerber and Andrea Petkovic in a match that lasted nearly two hours.
The tiebreakers were lost 7-5 and 8-6.
The US$2.37 million Western and Southern Open did not end there for Black’s partner Erakovic, who was scheduled to meet Czech Republic world No.9 Petra Kvitova in a second round singles match late last night.
The world No.77 from Auckland beat Spanish world No.20 Carla Suarez Navarro 6-4, 6-3 in a first-round upset.
In Erakovic and Black’s first four tournaments together this year they made three finals and reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
Since then the results have dropped off, but they did make it to the semi-finals in Carlsbad, California, two weeks ago.
“We had a few good matches in Carlsbad where we lost to the eventual winners, but it was very tight,” Erakovic said.
“We’re playing well, we had a really good run on the clay and leading up to the grass.
“Maybe people expected us to keep going well all of the time, but obviously that’s not possible.
“We’re doing our best and trying our hardest and I think that if we keep playing together I’m sure we can build on the success we’ve had.”
Erakovic and Black are expected to combine forces again when they take part in the fourth and final Grand Slam of the year — the US Open — which gets underway at Flushing Meadows in New York on August 26.
Online Reporter