Elena Baltacha pleads to be dealt a wildcard

By Alix Ramsay
Published on 10/06/2012 00:00

For the first time in her life, Elena Baltacha is hoping someone can do her a favour, writes Alix Ramsay. After a career grafting to earn her place in the pecking order of tennis and after overcoming a career-threatening liver condition and a similarly serious back injury, she must now rely on the goodwill of a group of strangers if she is to fulfil her dream of going to the Olympics.

No British woman has qualified by right for the singles so Britain is relying on a wildcard from the International Tennis Federation Olympic Committee. Until this week, Baltacha was the British No.1 and would have been first in line for that free pass but, thanks to a foot injury that scuppered the beginning of her clay-court season and a first-round loss to world No.6 Sam Stosur at the French Open, she has been overtaken in the rankings by Anne Keothavong. With the likelihood that the ITF will give Britain only one wildcard, Baltacha will now miss the Olympics.

Both Lawn Tennis Association chief Roger Draper, and Judy Murray, the British Federation Cup captain, have contacted ITF Olympic Committee chair Francesco Ricci Bitti to argue Baltacha’s case and ask for a second British wildcard, but they can only wait until the committee meets on 26 June to see if their pleas have been heard. Baltacha is trying to remain sanguine but, deep down, is desperately hoping the ITF help her out. She said: “The Olympics is kind of in my blood, because of my parents. My Dad was a medallist [in football with the USSR] but my mum really missed out by not going to the Games in Moscow. She was all set to go but they didn’t have anyone to look after my brother Sergei, who was just a little baby. My mum was a really good athlete [pentathlon] and I think it broke her heart. I always wanted to compete at the Olympics for her – it’s been a big goal of mine because I know it would mean the world to her.”

For the past decade, Baltacha has dedicated herself to Britain’s Fed Cup team, playing 43 consecutive ties. She has set up her own tennis academy for disadvantaged children in Ipswich and is patron of a community tennis project; she is patron of the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation and UsGirls, a charity initiative to get young girls to take up sport. So impressive is her CV as an ambassador for her sport that the ITF nominated her for a Fed Cup Heart Award. After a career like that, it does not seem too much to hope that the ITF could do her a favour.