Elena Baltacha eyes rankings rise after bowing out to Safina

Baltacha simply could not cope with the groundstrokes of last year's runner-up to lose 6-1, 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena. It meant Baltacha was unable to beat her best result at a grand slam after also reaching the third round at Melbourne Park in 2005 and at Wimbledon two years ago.

While she was outgunned by a player who spent most of last season as world No1, the 26-year-old has certainly proved in her run to the last 32 that she belongs inside the top 100. The Kiev-born right-hander reached a career-high ranking of 83 last week and that is set to climb after her efforts in Melbourne, which included a second-round win over 30th seed Kateryna Bondarenko.

Baltacha was disappointed she could not take more than three games off Safina, but believes her run at Melbourne Park this week has set the platform for her to rise the rankings further in 2010.

"It was difficult. It was a great experience for me to play the world No2," she said. "All credit to Safina I think she played really well today. I think overall it was a little bit disappointing because I would have liked to have played a little better. I did under-perform. I didn't show her the tennis I know I can play."

She added: "I've got to look on it in a very positive way – I've made the third round this week and I earned my place on Rod Laver today to play Safina. I'm proud of that. The start of the year has been fantastic. It's a complete and utter positive, it's just the start of 2010 and I've got the rest of the year to build on it and get better."

Safina will next play the winner of the match between Italy's Roberta Vinci and Maria Kirilenko, who knocked out former winner Maria Sharapova in the opening round.

Meanwhile, reigning US Open champion Kim Clijsters had a night to forget as she crashed out in Melbourne. The 26-year-old Belgian suffered the worst loss of her professional career as she was thrashed 6-0, 6-1 by 19th seed Nadia Petrova under the lights of the Hisense Arena.

There was better news for Clijsters' countrywomen, Justin Henin and Yanina Wickmayer, who both secured victories to set up an all-Belgian fourth-round tie.

Eighth seed Jelena Jankovic also crashed out of the women's draw when she lost to Alona Bondarenko, but the biggest surprise of the day was Clijsters' capitulation against Petrova.

The Russian took just 18 minutes to claim the opening set and a shell-shocked Clijsters never recovered. "This is something probably you want to forget as soon as possible and go home," the 15th seed said. "I was just questioning myself, just questioning myself out there a lot. There were points where I really wanted to break my racquet into pieces."