Stuart Bathgate: Buoyant Baltacha reveals she nearly retired a year ago

Published on Wednesday 24 June 2009 23:12

TODAY Elena Baltacha stands on the verge of the top 100 in the world. This time last year she was on the brink of giving up.

Baltacha, who will break into the elite of the world game if she defeats Kirsten Flipkens in today's Wimbledon singles second round, has always had the potential to be among the best. But she has also had regular problems with injury and illness, and as a result was beginning to turn her mind to a new career in coaching by the summer of 2008. While her fellow-Scot Andy Murray was reaching his first major final at the US Open, Baltacha was convinced she was playing in her last grand slam event.

A new coach, Nino Severino, and a new fitness regime gave her a new lease of life. She has still had injury problems to contend with this year, but they have been less severe, meaning she has been able to play more regularly. The improvement was evident in the first round here on Tuesday night when Baltacha, who turns 26 in August, defeated world No 33 Alona Bondarenko in three tight sets. Now she must beat Flipkens, the Wimbledon girls' champion in 2003 who is ranked 110th in the world, just four places below Baltacha.

"In the last nine months Nino has helped me so much," said Baltacha yesterday. "I've been more injury-free so I can play more tennis and perform more consistently. That's been a breakthrough for me. This time last year I wasn't particularly doing great. It was a bit of a funny year for me with things happening in my personal life, and if it wasn't for Nino I might have given up. It was pretty much lined up for me to go into coaching.

"Last year it was pretty difficult for me at the US Open, and I was going to stop after that. The big key was to get my programme spot on, with nutrition and fitness coaching as well as tennis coaching. Then I was really able to enjoy playing tennis."

It is seven years since Baltacha first showed her promise on a big stage, when she beat the former world No 3 Amanda Coetzer to reach the third round at Wimbledon. It was evident then, and has remained so since, that she had the potential to break into the top 50. British No 1 Anne Keothavong is close to doing that now, but it is significant that Baltacha, the No 2, has won eight grand slam matches to Keothavong's four. And of course the latest evidence of her competitive superiority came in the first round here, when she was the only British woman to win her match, prevailing against Bondarenko on Tuesday at the end of a day which, Murray's victory excepted, had brought just as much disappointment for Britain's male contingent.

Yet, while taking some satisfaction from her own success, Baltacha suggested that she was actually part of a British tennis scene which, despite appearances this week, is steadily getting better. "A lot of people concentrate on one week," she continued. "If you look at the rest of the year you'll see we are getting better. I know they (the British players] had tough draws, myself included. And I know that a couple of them had opportunities. But it's tough. I knew I was the last one going on, the last hope," she continued. "I was really chuffed that I managed to pull it out of the bag."

World No 1 and top seed Dinara Safina will probably await in the third round, but Baltacha knows she cannot afford to look further ahead at present than today's second-round battle with Belgium's second-best player. "I've played her twice and beaten her twice," she said of Flipkens. "But she's just beaten a seed (No 28 Agnes Szavay] and is obviously playing really well. So it's another tough match.

"I think I've got an opportunity, without a doubt. If I play good tennis and just keep believing, then I think I've got a very good chance of getting through to the third round."

And win or lose today, Baltacha will be around for a few slams yet, all thoughts of bringing the curtain down prematurely having been dispelled. "Now I'm not thinking about retirement," she insisted. "I'd love to compete at the Olympics. I'll be 29 then."