Crowd favourite Marina Erakovic blamed her sluggish movement for a disappointing straight-sets defeat that ended her singles campaign at the ASB Classic tennis tournament.

Erakovic, the world No.66, fell to unseeded American Jamie Hampton 6-1 7-6 (7-5) in a second-round encounter on Wednesday.

“More or less, today was to do with the feet than anything else,” the 24-year-old Aucklander said.

“I was just slow and not getting around as many balls as I would like.”

She said it meant she couldn’t get any real rhythm in her game, especially in the opening set, although she felt she moved better in the second.

“It’s tough,” she said.

“Your body sometimes doesn’t do what your mind is telling you.”

Erakovic could be excused some rustiness.

Until this week, she hadn’t played since injury ended her 2012 season after the US Open in August.

The 70th-ranked Hampton was the more consistent and showed an ability to reel off winners at vital moments, especially off her forehand.

After Erakovic dropped her serve three times in losing the opening set, she appeared to snatch the initiative when she finally broke her opponent to go 3-2 up in the second.

But her momentum swing was shortlived as Hampton broke back to square the set at 4-4.

In the tiebreak, Hampton had three match points, before finally converting a fourth with yet another forehand winner.

Erakovic has failed to progress past the second round in the Classic in five attempts since making the semi-finals in 2008.

In Thursday’s quarter-finals, Hampton will meet unseeded Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens, who beat Erakovic’s doubles partner, Britain’s Heather Watson, 6-4 3-6 6-3.

There was a second defeat for Erakovic and Watson in the Wednesday night session when, as the No.2 seeds, they bowed out of the doubles.

Winners of two WTA double titles in 2012, they were beaten in a quarter-final by Zimbabwe’s Cara Black and Australian Anastasia Rodionova 6-2 4-6 10-5.