Baltacha goes out in Hobart

Briton ousted by Dokic in opening round

By Rachel Griffiths   Last updated: 11th January 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Baltacha goes out in Hobart

Baltacha: Suffered early exit

I feel like I'm fitter this year and hitting the ball better. It's just a matter now of how I'm playing in the match situations

Jelena Dokic
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British number one Elena Baltacha suffered an early exit from the Moorilla Hobart International following a straight-sets defeat to Jelena Dokic in the first round.

The 26-year-old was beaten 6-4 6-2 by the world number 58 in an erratic match, where the Australian produced seven double faults but also fired 11 aces.

Baltacha had reached the first round after coming through qualifying by defeating former world number five Anna Chakvetadze.

The Briton also qualified for the Auckland tournament last week before losing in straight sets to Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru in the opening round.

Improvement

Former world number four Dokic, who will face Israeli Shahar Peer in the second round in Hobart on Wednesday, believes her fitness has improved since this time last year.

"The start of the year is always difficult. You always get a little bit sore after matches but it's okay," said Dokic.

"I feel like I'm fitter this year and hitting the ball better. It's just a matter now of how I'm playing in the match situations."

Second-seeded Peer claimed a 6-3 6-2 win over Australian Olivia Rogowska to land her a second-round spot.

The Israeli, who was dogged by protests last week in her run to the semi-finals in Auckland, played an undisrupted match to secure her victory.

In other matches, fifth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain beat Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-1 6-2, while seventh-seeded Zheng Jie overcame Kaia Kanepi 4-6 6-3 7-6 (4).

Gisela Dulko of Argentina, the eighth-seeded player, defeated Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-4 6-2 and Sara Errani battled to a 3-6 6-3 7-5 win over American Melanie Oudin.