To reach the final, she defeated Caroline Garcia, Irina Falconi, top seed Daniela Hantuchová and defending champion Tamira Paszek.

Seeded sixth, she reached the final of the Challenge Bell for the second time, defeating Mallory Burdette, Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová, Ajla Tomljanović and Christina McHale before losing in straight sets to Lucie Šafářová.

[citation needed] Erakovic's clay season was highlighted by a win against Nadia Petrova at the Charleston Open, but she experienced early losses in subsequent tournaments.

"[citation needed] Erakovic started the new year, as usual, in the Auckland Open, still with Eduardo Nicolás as her coach, but with a new doubles partner in Monica Puig.

[citation needed] Erakovic stayed in the Persian Gulf to compete the following week's Premier tournament in Doha, but retired due to a viral illness in her first singles qualifying match, when down 3–6, 0–3 against Tímea Babos.

Luckily her first doubles match, with new partner Gabriela Dabrowski, was not scheduled until two days later, and they beat the Ukrainian pair of Yuliya Beygelzimer and Olga Savchuk 10–8 in the super tie-break.

They didn't fare so well in the second round (quarterfinal), when beaten 6–3, 6–2 by Chan Hao-ching and Casey Dellacqua, managing to win only five service points in the second set.

Erakovic served superbly in the first qualifying round to beat Alexandra Panova, then not quite so well against Lourdes Domínguez Lino, but won both matches in straight sets to progress to the main draw.

Finally able to take the court with Petkovic as her doubles partner, they won their first two matches in straight sets, demolishing the fourth seeds Tímea Babos and Anna-Lena Grönefeld 6–1, 6–2, in the quarterfinal.

[citation needed] Erakovic skipped the following tournament in Stuttgart, choosing instead to wait a further week until the only African stop on the WTA Tour, the Morocco Open at Marrakesh.

[citation needed] Next stop was in Rome for the Italian Open, where Erakovic lost her first-round qualifying singles match to Christina McHale in straight sets and did not enter the doubles.

[citation needed] Erakovic's terrible luck with the draw in major tournaments continued in Paris, as she started her campaign against fourth seed Petra Kvitová, victor in all four of their previous encounters (including the second round of this event a year earlier).

Erakovic held serve to lead 4–2 but couldn't maintain the momentum as Kvitová broke back twice to take the set 6–4, her final service game being the only one where she did not offer a break point.

[citation needed] Erakovic injured a knee at Eastbourne and, although she continued on to play at Wimbledon, she then returned home to Auckland for six weeks' rest and rehabilitation.

[18] Playing singles only, Erakovic returned to the tour at the Cincinnati Open where, in a scrappy first-round qualifying match that saw more service breaks than holds, she lost to Kurumi Nara, 4–6, 3–6.

[citation needed] Feeling well-rested 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.

[citation needed] The semi-final was against Danka Kovinić and Barbora Strýcová, and an inability to convert break points cost Erakovic and Soler Espinosa dearly.

[citation needed] The highlight of Erakovic's clay-court season was the tournament in Rabat, Morocco, where she played three rounds of qualifying, then went all the way through the main draw to the final before losing 2–6, 1–6 to world No.

Surprisingly, she teamed up again with Parra Santonja to play doubles, winning the first-round match against Aleksandra Krunić and Andreea Mitu, but losing their second to 11th seeds Xu Yifang and Zheng Saisai.

Partnered by local player Zhang Ling in the doubles, they won a tight first-round match before going down to the top-seeded Chan sisters from Taipei, the final score being 6–4, 6–3.

[citation needed] Erakovic then took a short break before heading to Taipei for her first WTA 125 tournament, where she reached the semifinals before losing to local player Chang Kai-chen.

The points she earned from these last two tournaments lifted her singles ranking to 105, the mark she was hoping to reach to guarantee a main draw slot for the Australian Open.

Drawn against one of the leading juniors from 2016, Jeļena Ostapenko, who was to find fame a few months later as the winner of the French Open, she was never comfortable as the young Latvian raced through the match to win 6–1, 6–2.

[citation needed] The tour then moved to the Miami Open, where Erakovic won through qualifying against Naomi Broady and Françoise Abanda before facing Shelby Rogers in the first round.

[citation needed] She then dropped to the ITF Circuit the following week when, seeded fourth in singles, she lost in three sets in the first round at Indian Harbour Beach to Sesil Karatantcheva.

Erakovic then returned to Auckland for rest and treatment of her neck injury, having confirmed that she would be in the main draw at the French Open, although relegated to the qualifying tournament for Wimbledon.

Beaten in the second round of singles by Evgeniya Rodina, she went all the way to final of the doubles with her new partner, Chang Kai-chen of Chinese Taipei, where they lost in straight sets to the Australian pair of Monique Adamczak and Storm Sanders.

In the first round of singles at the next ITF event, the Manchester Trophy, Erakovic looked very comfortable in the early stages of her match against Aleksandra Krunić, jumping out to a 7–5, 3–0 lead.

From there it was on to Roehampton, and a successful run through the qualifying rounds for Wimbledon, with an emphatic win over Australian teenager Destanee Aiava sealing her place in the main draw.

[citation needed] The following tournament, at Templeton in California, saw Erakovic beat Grace Min and Anna Karolína Schmiedlová in the first two rounds to make the quarterfinals, where she lost to Sachia Vickery, in straight sets.