Interview: Elena Baltacha, tennis player

As Li Na played against - and eventually beat - defending champion Francesca Schiavone in the final of the French Open, Baltacha, the British No 1, could reflect happily on the fact that within the past year she had defeated both.

For a player whose career has suffered several serious setbacks, the date of those victories was as important as the fact. A decade ago as a teenager, she had been able to boast the fastest serve at Wimbledon behind the Williams sisters, but then for years had struggled to fulfil her promise. Now, the fact that she has beaten two Grand Slam winners was enough to suggest that, at 27, she could still have her best tennis in front of her.

That suggestion was further reinforced last week when she won the most highly ranked tournament of her career, the Aegon Nottingham Challenge. (She won the same event in 2010, but the prize money was doubled this year and it attracted a stronger field). And so, as she prepares for her tenth Wimbledon, she is doing so with justifiable confidence.

"I'm feeling good," she says. "It's really nice to be back on grass. My body's good, I'm playing well, and I took a lot of confidence from Paris.

"I was sitting there watching the final thinking it's quite funny I've beaten both of them. The tennis in those matches was unbelievable, and they are the two biggest wins on my CV. It's given me a lot of encouragement, specially watching Na win, because she wasn't one of the names who had been expected to be in contention.

"The fact that both of them are older than me is encouraging too. That just shows you if you keep plugging away, and work hard and stay fit, you never know what can happen."

Hard work has never been an issue for the Kiev-born Scot. Staying fit has. In 2003, two years on from her first senior outing at Wimbledon, she sought medical advice after feeling unusually fatigued during matches.

Initial tests ruled out any ME-type virus. Further tests were undertaken, and the results provoked a curious question from the consultant. "How much do you drink, anyway?", he asked, referring to scans which showed the kind of scarring which can result from alcohol abuse. The answer, of course, was hardly anything, and it was subsequently established that Baltacha had primary sclerosing cholangitis, an auto-immune condition which can lead to liver failure.

That problem is under control now, but it forced her out of action for the latter half of 2003, halting her impressive progress in its tracks. She had made her senior Wimbledon debut two years earlier, losing to Nathalie Dechy of France, but it was her second-round victory in 2002 against former world No 3 Amanda Coetzer which really brought her to the attention of the wider public.

The match against the South African was one of those rare occasions in the pre-Andy Murray era when a corner of Wimbledon became a little patch of Scotland. It was first come first served for the few hundred seats on Court No 3, and once they were full it was standing room only for a feverish crowd which grew in number, volume and clearly Caledonian content as the contest went on.

The Saltires were out in force. The inevitable small ginger figure in a Celtic top was in attendance (no, it wasn't Neil Lennon). Someone was spotted eating a single fish. And Baltacha herself added to the atmosphere with the odd roared expletive which had the ‘Ooh I say' set wincing in disbelief.

Baltacha prevailed in three sets over an opponent ranked 258 places above her, to take her place in the last 32. She lost her next match, but the fight she showed against Coetzer still brings a smile of pride to her face today. "In 2001 I was so nervous - I couldn't believe I'd been put on Centre Court for my first match as a senior at Wimbledon, and I think I lost the first set 6-0 in something like 20 minutes because I was so nervous. But it was a great experience. Unbelievable.

"Then in 2002 it was the result that was unbelievable. I had so many people behind me it was like a dream."

At the time it was like a dream in a positive sense, but once the magnitude of the liver problem became apparent it became dream-like in the sense of being almost illusory. Did I really beat someone who had been world No 3?, she must have asked herself at times. Or, more pertinently: Could I do something like that again?

For a while, that seemed unlikely, and the doubts came back in 2006 when persistent back problems forced her to undergo keyhole surgery. She had to remodel her game too, in recognition of the fact that she could no longer serve with the same ferocity, and since then has steadily become a more consistent all-round player. She may still be best known in Britain for her early achievements, but more recent years have been more productive by far: of her ten tournament wins on the circuit to date, all but three have come since 2008.

That success has been reflected in her ranking, which reached a career high of 49 last September. She is 61st at the moment, but heading back up in the right direction, and confident that the best has yet to come.

"When I was younger that win over Coetzer was definitely the best time of my career," she says. "But since then I've beaten players who are in the world top ten, and I've got into the top 50.

"I don't look at my ranking so much now - I did in the past, but if you focus too much on the points that you're defending at any given tournament you're going to tighten up and feel the pressure. The most important thing is to concentrate on doing well, and leave your ranking to look after itself.

"Having said that, I do want to get back into the top 50, because I think I've proved that's the standard of play I'm capable of. That's my main goal at the moment, whereas in the past my main goal when I was outside the top 100 was to get into the main draw of the slams. Now, although my ranking is down a bit on what it was last year, I do get in by right.

"And I believe I'm playing better now than I was when I was in the top 50 last year. Hopefully I'll get the chance to break into it again.

"The level of tennis on tour is getting better. I feel great, and as long as I stay healthy there's no reason why I can't keep going for a while yet.

"I'm more consistent now, performing regularly week in, week out. In the past I'd have a great week, or two weeks, and then go off the boil a bit. Now I feel more stable as a player.

"I know I've got the liver condition for the rest of my life, and I still have to take medication for it, but I know that it doesn't affect me now. It's under control.

"The back is the biggest thing, but recently it's not been a problem. Since I had the operation on it I've kept on doing maintenance work on it, basically - specific exercises to help it.

"Beforehand I'd probably been training longer than was best and maybe putting too much pressure on it. So now I don't do that. Also I periodise my year now, which I didn't use to do, and that makes a difference as well. I train more carefully, and there are certain exercises that affect my back, so I wouldn't do them.

"My strategy and tactics have improved. I've changed my service action too, and that's going well.

"My serve was definitely my strength when I was younger, and I got a lot of cheap points with it. Since I've had back surgery my serve is not quite so hard, but that has made me look at other aspects of my game which definitely needed to improve. So I look on the back problems as a blessing in disguise, really, because I think in the end they've helped me become a better all-round player.

"I'm beginning to realise that there are other ways you can dominate and take control rather than hitting the ball a million miles an hour. My serve has improved a lot - the variety of the serve and what I do with it. Placement is much more key than the power of it. But the biggest thing that I'm beginning to do is use my experience. I've got that on my side, especially when I play the young players. It's going to be my tenth Wimbledon, so I have played a few years on the grass. I think I should be able to draw on all the experience I've had, the good and the bad, to make it work for me now."

As a youngster Baltacha was able to draw on the sporting experience of her parents, former St Johnstone footballer Sergei and mother Olga, who was in the running for a place in the Soviet Union pentathlon squad for the 1980 Olympics but withdrew when she became pregnant with Elena's older brother, Sergei junior.

More than three decades on from the end of Olga's sports career, Elena has a chance to repay her mother for her support by making it to next year's London Olympics, when the tennis event will be held at the All England Club. "My goal has always been to make it to the Olympics, and my mum would love it if I made it too," she says.

Baltacha raised a few eyebrows at Eastbourne this week when she said she would maybe call it a day after the London Games. Having had a few days to think it about it, however, she says the operative word is definitely ‘maybe', and that it would be more accurate to say she had not thought beyond the Olympics than to declare she would definitely retire then.

"It's not 100 per cent," she explains. "I kind of just said that. I'll see how it goes. If I'm injury-free and loving it, then why not carry on?"

Why not indeed? She is injury-free for the time being at least, and has been given a relatively benign draw for Wimbledon, with an as-yet-unidentified qualifier as a first-round opponent. She knows that qualifiers can be dangerous, having won three matches to get into the main draw, but she is thankful that she has at least avoided a leading seed.

If she wins that opening match she could face No 20 seed Shuai Peng in the second round, and if she emulates her 2002 performance by winning that one and reaching the last 32 she could come up against Samantha Stosur. A meeting with the No 10 seed and last year's French Open finalist could be considerably tougher than the Coetzer match nine years ago, but Baltacha has always felt more comfortable as an underdog, and it is an encounter which the Australian will not anticipate with any relish.

But however she fares over the coming fortnight, Baltacha is confident that she can keep on improving, and that when in the fullness of time she does retire, she will be remembered for a lot more than that 2002 cameo at the championships. "I think I'm playing the best tennis that I have," she says. "I still think that I have things to improve on, which I'm working very hard on. I still don't think I've peaked out, whoch is the most encouraging and the most positive thing about my tennis.

"I'm in a really good place. I'm very happy. I'm working probably harder than I ever have. I think there's still more things to come."