Baltacha blows her big chance to fly the flag

On both paper and grass Elena Baltacha's second round pairing with Kirsten Flipkens was as winnable as they come. Sadly for the humbled Scot, that was never the case in her head. Indeed matches in the final 64 of a Grand Slam are rarely more inviting than those against light-hitting Belgians of little renown and modest ranking. Yet for an hour Baltacha made her opponent, the world No 110, look as though she were the latest prototype to roll off that tiny country's production line of Tennis superstars. Flipkens spun Britain's only remaining player in the ladies draw out on her ear, 7-5, 6-1. And now there are none. All six sources of domestic interest have run dry for the sum total of one victory. Baltacha produced that in the dusk on Court No 1 two days ago and the fear was her win over Alona Bondarenko came a too high a price physically and especially mentally. The manner in which she sunk to her knees and held her face in her hands on Tuesday was more fitting of a player who had secured the very Venus Rosewater Dish itself and not merely taken one step closer. Clearly the 25-year-old was never going to go too deep into this tournament but walking on court yesterday she will have fancied her chances of booking a third round appointment with Dinara Safina. That match would surely have been played on one of the show courts, not like this one which was banished to the provinces of Court No 4, a curious decision by the committee that one. Particularly at a time when British winners of any sort merit not only a decent arena but canonisation. "A couple of people have said it would have been nice if I was on a bigger court but it didn't faze me at all. For me it doesn't matter," Baltacha said. "But of course if you have a very big crowd out there to support you that makes it even more fantastic." And neither should it. Neither should any Britons spend too long examining the teeth of gift horses. Baltacha was not only playing for the dubious honour of facing the world No 1, the player who smashed Anne Keothavong 6-0, 6-0 in the French Open, the first top 100 ranking of her career was up for grabs too.. That will not now be forthcoming and if the evidence of this effort is anything to go by, neither should it. Baltacha spent the whole match improving her knowledge of equine dentistry. A break and 3-1 up she appeared to be strolling but a double fault at 30-40 in the sixth game handed her opponent an undeserved route back in. Baltacha then had her best chance of the set at 5-5 when she clubbed a service return to Flipkens' feet and was rewarded with an uppish half-volley that simply begged to be put away. Instead Britain's No 2 chugged up court and swatted it straight into the net. She went on to lose that game and the next six. Her forehand broke down completely as potential winners were smeared high, wide and not too handsome. Flipkens' tippy-tappy game flourished and her drop shots became more and more outrageous. Baltacha did well to save four match points but she looked thoroughly beaten on the fifth as the former Wimbledon and US Open Junior champion landed yet another dink, this time from a metre behind the baseline. It was the match in a microcosm. One artful and mobile player, another leaden-footed and bereft of inspiration. "On paper it was a very good chance," Baltacha conceded. "But no one's going to be easy playing at Wimbledon." nSvetlana Kuznetsova continued her low-key progress thanks to what she referred to as the "weird" scheduling. Kuznetsova won the French Open earlier this month, her second Grand Slam title, and is seeded fifth to reflect her world ranking. But the Russian ended up playing her first-round match on Court 14 and her second round on Court Three, while lower-ranked, but arguably more glamorous players such as Caroline Wozniacki and Maria Kirilenko, were on Centre Court. Kuznetsova said: "It's fine to put me wherever they want to, they don't have to put me on Centre Court. "But with the schedule, this is the weird thing. If you look at the schedule, it's not about only me. Dinara plays on Court Two, Venus (Williams) plays on Court One and girls who are not very high seeds play Centre." WEB: Read Brian Dick's critique on the state of Tennis in Britain at birminghampost.net/sport TODAY AT WIMBLEDON (Play starts at noon on all courts except where stated) Centre Court (1:00): (27) Phillip Kohlschreiber (Ger) v (2) Roger Federer (Swi), (8) Victoria Azarenka (Blr) v (28) Sorana-Mihaela Cirstea (Rom), (28) Mardy Fish (USA) v (4) Novak Djokovic (Ser) Court 1 (1:00): Regina Kulikova (Rus) v (4) Elena Dementieva (Rus), (22) Ivo Karlovic (Cro) v (9) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra), (24) Tommy Haas (Ger) v (11) Marin Cilic (Cro) Court 2: Roberta Vinci (Ita) v (2) Serena Williams (USA), (7) Vera Zvonareva (Rus) v (26) Virginie Razzano (Fra), (7) Fernando Verdasco (Spa) v (32) Albert Montanes (Spa), (4) Serena Williams (USA) & Venus Williams (USA) v Sabine Lisicki (Ger) & Aleksandra Wozniak (Can) Court 3: (13) Robin Soderling (Swe) v Nicolas Almagro (Spa), Gisela Dulko (Arg) v (10) Nadia Petrova (Rus), (15) Tommy Robredo (Spa) v Dudi Sela (Isr), (1) Cara Black (Zim) & Liezel Huber (USA) v Klaudia Jans (Pol) & Alicja Rosolska (Pol) Court 4: (4) Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) & Mark Knowles (Bah) v Philipp Petzschner (Ger) & Alexander Peya (Aut), (12) Anna-Lena Groenefeld (Ger) & Vania King (USA) v Jocelyn Rae (Gbr) & Melanie South (Gbr), Robert Kendrick (USA) & Sam Querrey (USA) v (2) Daniel Nestor (Can) & Nenad Zimonjic (Ser) Court 5: Vera Dushevina (Rus) & Tatiana Perebiynis (Ukr) v Kaia Kanepi (Est) & Ipek Senoglu (Tur), (1) Bob Bryan (USA) & Mike Bryan (USA) v Johan Brunstrom (Swe) & Jean-Julien Rojer (Aho), (7) Max Mirnyi (Blr) & Andy Ram (Isr) v Sonchat Ratiwatana (Tha) & Sanchai Ratiwatana (Tha), Jean-Julien Rojer (Aho) & Galina Voskoboeva (Kaz) v Jeff Coetzee (Rsa) & Jill Craybas (USA) Court 7: (13) Frantisek Cermak (Cze) & Michael Mertinak (Svk) v Jamie Delgado (Gbr) & Jonathan Marray (Gbr), Iveta Benesova (Cze) & Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova (Cze) v Yaroslava Shvedova (Kaz) & Tamarine Tanasugarn (Tha), Kristina Barrois (Ger) & Tathiana Garbin (Ita) v Sara Errani (Ita) & Carla Suarez-Navarro (Spa), Philipp Petzschner (Ger) & BarboraZahlavova- Strycova (Cze) v Scott Lipsky (USA) & Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) Court 11: Rameez Junaid (Aus) & Philipp Marx (Ger) v Prakash Amritraj (Ind) & Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureschi (Pak), Pablo Cuevas (Uru) & Leonardo Mayer (Arg) v (10) Travis Parrott (USA) & Filip Polasek (Svk), Dusan Vemic (Ser) & Flavia Pennetta (Ita) v Colin Fleming (Gbr) & Sarah Borwell (Gbr), Andrei Pavel (Rom) & Monica Niculescu (Rom) v Jordan Kerr (Aus) & Vania King (USA) Court 12: (16) Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) & Amelie Mauresmo (Fra) v Laura Robson (Gbr) & Georgie Stoop (Gbr), (15) Martin Damm (Cze) & Robert Lindstedt (Swe) v James Cerretani (USA) & Victor Hanescu (Rom), (8) Lukasz Kubot (Pol) & Oliver Marach (Aut) v Chris Guccione (Aus) & Frank Moser (Ger), Dick Norman (Bel) & Liga Dekmeijere (Lat) v James Cerretani (USA) & Sybille Bammer (Aut) Court 14: Maria Elena Camerin (Ita) & Anna Chakvetadze (Rus) v (3) Samantha Stosur (Aus) & Rennae Stubbs (Aus), Andrei Pavel (Rom) & Horia Tecau (Rom) v Eric Butorac (USA) & Scott Lipsky (USA), Christopher Kas (Ger) & Viktor Troicki (Ser) v (11) Marcelo Melo (Bra) & Andre Sa (Bra), Eric Butorac (USA) & Yaroslava Shvedova (Kaz) v Johan Brunstrom (Swe) & Vera Dushevina (Rus) Court 16: Anastasia Rodionova (Aus) & Galina Voskoboeva (Kaz) v (2) Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spa) & Virginia Ruano Pascual (Spa), Alex Bogdanovic (Gbr) & James Ward (Gbr) v (5) Bruno Soares (Bra) & Kevin Ullyett (Zim), Frantisek Cermak (Cze) & Lucie Hradecka (Cze) v Fabrice Santoro (Fra) & Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spa), Paul Hanley (Aus) & Anastasia Rodionova (Aus) v (3) Marcin Matkowski (Pol) & Lisa Raymond (USA) Court 18: Daniela Hantuchova (Svk) v Ai Sugiyama (Jpn), (14) Dominika Cibulkova (Svk) v Elena Vesnina (Rus), Francesca Schiavone (Ita) v (12) Marion Bartoli (Fra), Andreas Seppi (Ita) v (29) Igor Andreev (Rus) TBA: Travis Parrott (USA) & Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukr) v James Auckland (Gbr) & Elena Baltacha (Gbr), Ross Hutchins (Gbr) & Anne Keothavong (Gbr) v Bruno Soares (Bra) & Alisa Kleybanova (Rus), Andy Ram (Isr) & Anna Chakvetadze (Rus) v Igor Andreev (Rus) & Maria Kirilenko (Rus)