Baltacha's run in Melbourne comes to swift end to Safina

Baltacha simply could not cope with the groundstrokes of last year's runner-up to lose 6-1 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena.

It meant Baltacha was unable to beat her best ever result at a grand slam after also reaching the third round at Melbourne Park in 2005 and at Wimbledon two years ago.

While she was outgunned yesterday by a player who spent most of last season as world No 1, the 26-year-old Baltacha has certainly proved in her run to the last 32 that she belongs inside the top 100.

The Kiev-born right-hander reached a career-high ranking of 83 last week and that is set to climb after her efforts in Melbourne, which included a second-round win over 30th seed Kateryna Bondarenko.

Baltacha was never truly in the hunt yesterday in the face of some fearsome strokeplay from the 23-year-old Safina.

The Russian plundered 19 winners as she went for her shots from both wings, leaving Baltacha a redundant figure at times as she could only hope Safina missed the lines.

She rarely did and broke all three of Baltacha's service games in an opening set that lasted 26 minutes.

Baltacha responded by winning her first service game of the second set to love, but then conceded the break to go 3-1 down with a double fault.

It was all Safina needed and she took another break of serve before closing out the match in 57 minutes.

Safina will next play the winner of the match between Italy's Roberta Vinci and Maria Kirilenko, who knocked out former winner Maria Sharapova in the opening round.

Baltacha was disappointed she could not take more than three games off Safina, but believes her run at Melbourne Park this week has set the platform for her to rise the rankings further in 2010.

"It was difficult. It was a great experience for me to play the world No 2," said Baltacha. "All credit to Safina I think she played really well today. I think overall it was a little bit disappointing because I would have liked to have played a little better.

"I did under-perform. I didn't show her the tennis I know I can play."

She added: "I've got to look on it in a very positive way – I've made the third round this week and I earned my place on Rod Laver today to play Safina. I'm proud of that.

"The start of the year has been fantastic.

"It's a complete and utter positive, it's just the start of 2010 and I've got the rest of the year to build on it and get better," she added.

Laura Robson's Australian Open involvement continued as she moved into the third round of the women's doubles.

The Melbourne-born British prospect, 16 this week, continued her partnership with Australian Sally Peers to beat 12th-seeded pair Chia-Jung Chuang and Kveta Peschke 6-3 6-4 in their second-round clash on Court Seven.

On Thursday, Robson celebrated her birthday by ousting Americans Jill Craybas and Abigail Spears in two sets in front of a partisan 'home' crowd.

Sarah Borwell and her American partner Raquel Kops-Jones were less fortunate, however, losing to Argentinian Gisela Dulko and Italy's Flavia Pennetta 7-5 6-2.