Erakovic through to second round

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New Zealand's Marina Erakovic is through to the second round of the ASB Classic tennis tournament in Auckland after a tough opening match.

Erakovic beat Spain's Nuria Llagostera Vives 7-5, 6-4 and will now meet the tournament's top seed Elena Dementieva in the next round.

Erakovic was broken twice in the first set but managed to break back three times herself in a set which took just under an hour. In the second set Erakovic saved eight break points as she held off her opponent who gave the New Zealander a decent first match.

In the end the Kiwi's serve was the difference as she finished with 11 aces and only two double faults.

In other results Dementieva beat Yung-Jan Chan 7-5 6-3 to move through to the second round while second seed Caroline Wozniacki made a strong start to the tournament beating Italian qualifier Alberta Brianti 6-1, 6-0.

Eighth seed Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain and Russia's Elena Vesnina both advanced comfortably in straight sets.