Baltacha opens path to third round

Published on Monday 23 June 2008 23:44

IT HAS been six years since Elena Baltacha last made the third round at Wimbledon, but yesterday she gave herself the chance to repeat the feat after a pulsating and emotional victory against Germany's Angelique Kerber.

She now faces China's Zheng Jie, who created the first shock at Wimbledon yesterday when she defeated 30th seed Dominika Cibulkova in two sets, 6-4, 6-3.

While Zheng is clearly high on confidence, Baltacha has been handed a winnable tie against an opponent ranked only 25 places above her, and the news of Cibulkova's removal from her path simply added to the Kiev-born Scot's joy yesterday, although it may not have been immediately obvious. Baltacha later assured reporters that her tears at the end of yesterday's match signified only relief at having overcome her doughty opponent, though she been put through the emotional mill so often in her career that it doesn't take much for the waterworks to come.

Baltacha, a wildcard qualifier for this year's Wimbledon, sank to her knees and cried after a net-cord on the final point helped her secure a 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 victory against Kerber. Baltacha also had the distinction of being the first Briton through to the second round, although a topsy-turvy encounter meant few were prepared to predict a winner.

Baltacha trailed 4-2 in the final set and looked to have let the match slip, but she drew on her fighting qualities and broke Kerber in the eighth game. She then suffered a break herself in the following game to the groans of a supportive crowd. But Baltacha rallied to take the next three games and deserved her moment in the sun.

No-one can say Baltacha, who has seen a succession of liver and back complaints interrupt her progress, has had it easy, but even when illness is not attacking her body she still feels it necessary to place obstacles in her way. She tried at times to beat herself yesterday on Court 11, and when a marathon match finally finished in her favour she let out all her frustrations in a fit of sobbing which reflected yet another traumatic year for the British No 3.

It isn't the first time she has let the enormity of the occasion overcome her at Wimbledon. Back in 2004 she burst into tears following a first-round victory over Marta Marrero and again yesterday there was a moment which had those charged with dragging on the covers begin to twitch. "It hasn't been an easy kind of road for me," she explained later, with considerable understatement. "I am very emotional because this does mean a lot to me. I love playing tennis. But today it was just the relief. I knew I could win today. It was just pure relief, really."

She split with her long-term coaches Alan Jones and Jo Durie in the spring and was forced to retire from a tournament in Doha due to severe cramp in both of her legs when tied 5-5 in the final set. She desired a change in her circumstances and elected to move her training base to the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, alongside fellow Britons Anne Keothavong, Melanie South and Katie O'Brien. All are eyeing a place in the world top 100 and yesterday's victory against Kerber, ranked 27 places above her at 131, offered Baltacha hope that she can return to this bracket in the not too distant future.

Nobody can doubt her commitment and, still only 24, time remains on her side. She has undertaken a strict dietary regime which, she lamented, means having to go without pepperoni pizza. "I have trimmed down a lot and feel really fit," she said. "Physically I am at my peak at the moment."

She defended the oft-criticised Lawn Tennis Association and paid tribute to her new support team of footwork specialist Nino Severino, Ben Haining, Nigel Sears and Sophie Scott. She has been imbued with a new sense of purpose after admitting there were occasions when she allowed herself to think there was no point in continuing to battle against her, at times unwilling, body.

"There have been times when it has been very difficult, but I still love tennis and I still think I haven't fulfilled my potential," she said. "I think I can still be dangerous."