New Zealand tennis No.1 Marina Erakovic has bowed out of the French Open after a tight third-round loss to American Sloane Stephens.
Erakovic battled brilliantly against the 17th seed, a semi-finalist at this year’s Australian Open, before going down 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 in a match that lasted more than two hours on Saturday.
The 25-year-old Aucklander had pulled off a significant upset to become the first New Zealand woman to reach the third round at Roland Garros, beating 16th seed Dominika Cibulkova on Thursday.
Erakovic matched her best result at a grand slam, achieved at Wimbledon in 2008.
Stephens, 20, is likely to face defending champion Maria Sharapova in the fourth round.
After losing a tight first set in 35 minutes, Erakovic took an early 3-1 lead in the second.
The pair traded breaks regularly before Erakovic fought back from 3-0 down in the tiebreak to take the set with a spectacular display of power hitting.
After wasting a handful of break-point chances early in the deciding set, Erakovic was broken to allow Stephens a 3-1 lead but the New Zealander fought back gamely to 3-3.
However a couple of errors at key times allowed Stephens to capitalise and run away with the match.
Erakovic, who has a career-high ranking of No.39, won her debut WTA Tour singles title in Memphis in February.
However, a run of poor results meant she went into the French Open as the world No.92.
She is also in the women’s doubles with Zimbabwe’s Cara Black.