Baltacha beaten Down Under

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:59

The 26-year-old suffered a 6-4 6-2 defeat against the former world number four, who illustrated the unpredictability of her game – producing seven double faults but also hitting 11 aces.

Baltacha had reached the first round with victory over former world number five Anna Chakvetadze. She also came through qualifying in Auckland last week before going down in straight sets to Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru.

Second seed Shahar Peer made comfortable progress into the second round thanks to a 6-3 6-2 success against Australian Olivia Rogowska.

The world number 30 from Israel was too good for 18-year-old Rogowska and emerged victorious in one hour and eight minutes.

Fifth seed Carla Suarez Navarro was even more ruthless as she swept past Yaroslava Shvedova 6-1 6-2 in 53 minutes, while Chinese seventh seed Zheng Jie was given a far tougher test against Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.

Zheng lost the first set 6-4 but bounced back to win the second 6-3 and then claimed the decisive third in a tie-break.

Eighth seed Gisela Dulko saw off Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-4 6-2, while Alla Kudryavtseva overcame fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-0 6-0.

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