and hopefully injury-free, although obviously rusty from lack of match fitness, Erakovic returned to the tour with a wildcard entry into her home tournament, the Auckland Open. Drawn against Yulia Putintseva, the pair battled hard for two hours, through two tie-breakers, before Erakovic prevailed 7–6, 7–6. She converted only two of seven break points in the first set, and was unable to win even a solitary point on her second serve. The second set, however, showed a marked improvement in the latter, as she picked up 10 points from her 13-second serves. Her second round match, against Alexandra Dulgheru, again featured a tie-break, but this time the New Zealander lost 4–7. They traded service breaks to start the second set, but Dulgheru finished much the stronger to run out the winner 7–6, 6–3. In the doubles, Erakovic teamed up with Sílvia Soler Espinosa for the first time in close to ten years. In the first round, they were drawn against local wildcards Sacha Jones and Rosie Cheng. After losing the first two games they won the next six, and the set. The second set was closer, eventually going to a tie-break, but the far more experienced pair prevailed comfortably in the finish, the final score being 6–2, 7–6. Their second round (quarterfinal) was against the second seeds Görges and Srebotnik. The first three service games were all lost, and it was Soler Espinosa holding serve that saw them eventually take the first set. She dropped both her second and third service games in the second set, however, as the seeds bounced back to level the match. Erakovic and Soler Espinosa raced away to a 6–1 lead in the match tie-break, losing only two points on their own service as they eventually won 6–4, 4–6, [10–7]. The semifinal was against Danka Kovinić and Barbora Strýcová, and an inability to convert break points cost Erakovic and Soler Espinosa dearly. They missed three in the very first game, eventually gaining only two of the ten offered. Kovinić and Strýcová fared slightly better, claiming three of eight break points to take the set 6–4. With only one service break apiece, the second set was much tighter. With Erakovic serving to stay in the match at 4–5, she was 15–30 down when rain forced a halt, the match resuming the following day. Kovinić and Strýcová took only a couple of minutes to get the two