Shellharbour’s Ellen Perez will turn her focus to the Australian Open Mixed Doubles after the left-hander and partner Jessica Moore were sent packing in the second round of Women’s Doubles.
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The Aussie duo were eliminated in a hard-fought battle with Romanian 10th seeds Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu, who eventually scored a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory on Friday afternoon.
Perez and Moore had themselves in the box seat to progress through to the third round early in the piece after taking the opening set on Show Court 3.
The higher seeded pairing knew they were in for a fight and rose to the occasion with the pressure on.
They were always in control in the second set after securing an early break and marched out to a 4-2 advantage at the beginning of the final set.
Not to go down without a fight, Perez and Moore showed grit and determination to claw their way back to lead 5-4 on serve in the deciding set.
But Begu and Niculescu rattled off three straight games to take their spot in the next round.
It leaves Perez with just the Mixed Doubles draw to look forward to at the first major of the season.
She will play alongside fellow Australian Andrew Whittington in the first round on Saturday morning at Melbourne Park.
They will face-off against the well-fancied Timea Babos, of Hungary, and Indian Rohan Bopanna.
The Australian duo’s rivals are the fifth seed in the Mixed Doubles draw.
