Groth loses tight three-setter | Northern Rivers Tennis | Tennis in Northern Rivers

(c) istockphoto.com/Michael Flippo

MELBOURNE Park has been no-one's idea of a happy hunting ground for new Australian citizen Jarmila Groth.

Her history coming into Wednesday's Australian Open first-round clash against Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden read a sorry four defeats from as many attempts.

So it was hardly surprising that deep in the third set against Arvidsson, Groth's mind flitted back to last year's tight three-set loss to Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano.

And just a few minutes later that win-loss record had slipped to 0-5 as the consistent Swede prevailed 6-2 4-6 6-4.

"I can't say I didn't think about it," said the Slovakian-born Groth, who gained her Australian citizenship last November after marrying Australian tour player Sam Groth earlier in the year.

"But it's a different match and you try to do your best every time you're out there.

"I tried my best and unfortunately in the end I made more errors than she did."

That was something of an understatement.

The aggressive Groth peeled off 78 unforced errors, compared to just 24 from Arvidsson, although the Australian did dominate the winners' count 51-18.

Groth, 23, was also hampered by a lack of match practice, with Wednesday's encounter her first in a main draw since the US Open in August, after which she was sidelined by an ankle injury.

"It would help if I had more matches behind me and more practice," said Groth, who failed to advance from the qualifying rounds at the Brisbane and Sydney Internationals, before gaining an Australian Open wildcard.

"Still, I had my chances.

"I had a lot of games where I was 40-15 up, at three-all in the third set I had 40-15 and there was one line call where I swear it was really wide (but the linesperson called Arvidsson's shot in).

"But it doesn't matter now.

"It was similar to last year's match (also on Margaret Court Arena).

"It was almost the same score and there was deja vu going back.

"So it got really difficult for me to finish it and in the end it got away from me."

The loss to Arvidsson meant the Australian Open remained the only grand slam event where Groth had yet to record a victory.

The world No.123's next goal is to get her ranking back inside the top 100.

Barring an unlikely call-up from Fed Cup captain David Taylor for next month's tie against Spain in Adelaide, she will play three Challenger tournaments in her adopted home country before heading overseas.

Only four of the 15 Australian competitors at the 2010 Open advanced beyond the first round - Samantha Stosur, Casey Dellacqua, Lleyton Hewitt and Bernard Tomic.