Tennis: Aussie Open - Elena Baltacha runs out of steam

Elena Baltacha's brave run at the Australian Open came to a disappointing end in the third round on Friday. Baltacha was completely out of sorts as she lost 6-1 6-0 in just 56 minutes to 15th seed Silvia Farina Elia on Court Two in Melbourne.

The British number one committed a total of 32 unforced errors but can take huge encouragement from her previous performances, winning three matches in qualifying and coming from a set down in both her first and second-round victories.

The 21-year-old was the first British woman to make it to the third round here since Clare Wood in 1991 and was already assured of her biggest pay-day of 18,792 - only 4,000 less than she earnt in the whole of 2004. She will also climb to a career-high world ranking inside the top 130, a massive improvement on 185th at the start of the week and the highest since Louise Latimer in 2001.

Sportinglife

She did really well, its about time we had a women tennis player who can get competitive!