Baltacha and Keothavong through in Midland
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Elena Baltacha and Anne Keothavong moved into the last 16 of the 100,000 dollar ITF tournament in Midland, USA.
British number one Baltacha defeated 38 year old veteran Maureen Drake of Canada in straight sets. Baltacha overcame the qualifier, 6-1, 6-1. Her next opponent will be Severine Beltrame of France. Beltrame is ranked 112 places below the Briton at number 195, but has been ranked as high as 34 in the world in 2007.
Anne Keothavong joined Baltacha in the next round with a win over qualifier Ivana Lisjak of Croatia, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5. The British number three is playing in her first ranking tournament since suffering an injury to her left knee at the Bank of The West Classic, Stanford, USA, in July 2009.
At the time of her injury, Keothavong was the British number one and had a ranking of number 54. Due to her absence from the WTA Tour, this has now slipped to number 127. She will now face Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in the last 16.
Daniilidou has a current ranking of 161. However, before injury problems in 2008, she was a regular player inside the world's top 50. She reached a career high of 14 in the world in May 2003.
The other three remaining British players in the draw lost their opening round matches. Katie O'Brien was beaten in straight sets by American Laura Granville, 6-2, 6-3. Naomi Broady qualified for this event, but was defeated in the first round proper by Elena Baltacha's next opponent, Severine Beltrame of France, 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4. Heather Watson also bowed out to qualifier Beatrice Capra of the USA, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.