Aiming high

Since turning pro thirteen years ago back in 1997, British number one Elena Baltacha is now arguably producing the best tennis of her career after a tremendous start to 2010, and the 26-year-old is setting her sights on cracking the World's top 50.

The 26-year-old's rise up the rankings has seen her reclaim the British number one spot as she ended the year ranked number 87 in the world.

Baltacha has showed no signs of being content with just making the World's top 100 and has continued from where she left off in 2009 by making a sensational start to this year's campaign.

After training rigorously in the off season, Baltacha began her season in New Zealand and showed encouraging signs by successfully qualifying for the ASB Classic in Auckland. The Ukrainian-born player won three tough matches to make it into the main draw but was beaten by Romanian Ioana Raluca Olara in the opening round.

The ranking improvement over the past twelve months for Baltacha meant that she entered the main draw of the Australian Open without having to qualify for the first time. The 26-year-old took advantage of this in striking fashion by reaching the third round at Melbourne for just the second time in her career.

In the first round, Baltacha came through a close three setter against Pauline Parmentier of France, eventually prevailing 6-4 3-6 7-5. The second round was where Baltacha produced her best tennis of the tournament, dispatching of Ukrainian 30^th seed Kateryna Bondarenko, a result which proves that the Brit can compete with the best that women's tennis has to offer.

The superb second round win earned Baltacha a third round meeting with World Number Two Russian Dianara Safina and despite losing in straight sets, Baltacha was understandably delighted with her start to the year, something which she sees as vitally important towards the rest of the year.

"I am very delighted with my performance at the Australian Open, it is always important to start the year off as best as possible as that will set you up for the rest of the year," said Baltacha.

 The 26-year-old also explained how she felt her recent success was her reaping the benefits of all the hard work she has put in with her coach Nino Severino and the work they had put in towards improving on specific facets of her game.

"I have been working very hard with my coach Nino Severino on all aspects of my game over the last twelve months, especially on tactics, setting up points with certain patterns of play and executing."

Severino also expressed his delight with her start to the year and believes that the British number one is reaping the rewards of a well constructed pre-season programme.

"I am very pleased with the start of 2010. It has delivered the level of performance I was hoping for. We put a very high quality pre-season phase into the schedule and this paid dividends during the first two WTA events," said Severino.

"This in turn gave Bally the base to deliver a fantastic win against Katerina Bondarenko and ultimately the chance to play the No.2 world ranked player Dinara Safina in the Australian Open."

Severino also stressed the importance of remaining fit towards gaining momentum within a tennis season, as well as citing mental improvements as a crucial factor behind Baltacha's recent improvements.

"Bally is much, much stronger mentally. The conditioning programme is creating the levels of adaptation that have supported the early signs of good form. Good form comes from momentum and this is created by injury free phases."

Fresh from her terrific performance in Melbourne, Baltacha travelled to Portugal with Anne Keothavong, Sarah Borwell and Katie O'Brien to represent Great Britain in the Federations Cup.

And despite narrowly missing out on promotion to the World Group, the Brit thoroughly enjoyed the experience and was full of praise for the British team.

"I really enjoyed playing in the Fed Cup in Lisbon this year; I always feel it is a real honour and a privilege to represent my country."

"I felt our team was very solid, we were all playing great tennis going into the event and i felt we had a good chance in qualifying for the world group, unfortunately our group was very difficult."

Baltacha showed no signs of fatigue when she travelled straight to America and continued her sensational start to the year by winning the Dow Corning Classic in Michigan.

After reaching the final without dropping a set, the Suffolk-based Scot fought valiantly against the top seed and world number 56 Lucie Hradecka, to record a 5-7 6-2 6-3 victory and claim the biggest title of her career. 

Baltacha was understandably thrilled to continue her imperious form and admitted that even she was surprised by how quickly she adapted to the American conditions.

"I am so delighted to have won my first $100k event, I really didn't know what to expect from myself after arriving straight from the Fed Cup."

"Although I only had one day to acclimatise and get used to the courts before my first round match, as soon as I started playing I felt very comfortable, relaxed and settled in very quickly."

"I felt like I was improving with every match and by the semis I was really striking the ball sweetly and playing really smartly."

"I am very delighted with my overall performance and want to use this as a spring board to move further up the rankings."

After her terrific recent form, Baltacha has reached a career-high of 70 in the world rankings and the British Number One is setting her sights on continuing her climb up the tennis ladder and reaching the world's top 50.

"My ambitions for 2010 are to keep moving up the rankings as much as I can, reaching the top 50 is a big goal for me and one which I feel is very realistic."

Throughout her professional career, Baltacha has been around the top of British tennis and has been a real role model for aspiring young players, and the 26-year-old has spoken of her excitement at the future generation of female British talent.

"The outlook of British Women's tennis is looking very exciting at the moment and there are a few very talented prospects to look out for. The next crop of players to look out for will be the likes of Laura Robson and Heather Watson without a doubt."

Baltacha has often shown glimpses of what she is capable of achieving, but the recent encouraging signs suggest that if she can build on her excellent start to the year and sustain her level of performance, then there is no reason why she cannot fulfill her clear potential by continuing her surge up the rankings and consistently competing at the top end of world tennis.

Tom Foster