Elena Baltacha Squanders Match Point

Wimbledon has been going a meager three hours and there is already British disappointment as Elena Baltacha, the British women's number one, has crashed out of the competition, despite serving for the match.

She was playing Wimbledon debutante Petra Martic, who is ranked fifteen places below her, and she made a positive and was in complete control of the match.

The opening serve was completely one way traffic for the Briton as she put pressure on Martic's serve right from the start as she produced two double faults gifting Baltacha the break, which she gratefully took.

It was the power and pace of Baltacha that really bothered Martic as she was forced into making errors by the higher ranked player.

It wasn't until the sixth game of the opening set where Baltacha finally did counter some resistance on her serve as she suffered a bit of a wobble.

But she drew on all of her experience and held on stay a break ahead in the set. She re-established her authority in the seventh game as she broke Martic serve for a second time before holding to take the opener 6-2.

But Martic seemed to have settled more at the beginning of the second and it became more of a contest. The pair held a couple of service games a piece and were locked at 2-2.

The fifth game was the turning point as they produced the rally of the match, one that Baltacha won with a superb down the line forehand to give her the break point.

The break point was soon converted as Martic lost her nerve sending a shot long to once again give Baltacha the advantage. At 5-4 Baltacha served for the match but her nerves got the better of her and she lost her serve for the first time.

This was just the opportunity that Martic had been waiting for and she went on to level the match by taking the second set 5-7 forcing a third set shoot out.

The momentum was well and truly with the teenager as she attacked Baltacha's serve early in the third set, getting the vital break, she broke again in the fourth game and Baltacha was now really in trouble.

Sadly the Briton has no answer for Martic's play as she finally came through 2-6 7-5 6-3 to set up a clash with 11th seed Marion Bartoli.

The French woman dropped just seven games on her way to a straight sets 6-4 6-3 victory over Georges of Germany.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw