AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Venue: Melbourne Park Date: 18-31 January
BBC coverage: Every Murray match live on BBC 1 or 2
Daily from 0830 GMT: live on BBC Red Button/website, 5 Live sports extra
Daily from 0000 GMT: text commentary on BBC Sport website

Baltacha is currently at a career-high ranking of 83 in the world

British number one Elena Baltacha upset world number 32 Kateryna Bondarenko to reach the Australian Open third round.

The Scot, ranked 51 places below her opponent at 83, will face second seed Dinara Safina after coming from a break down in the second set to win 6-2 7-5.

"I'm just delighted," said the 26-year-old. "I knew I had to play well, I went out with a game plan, and I really did believe I could beat her."

Fellow Briton Katie O'Brien lost 6-2 6-2 to eighth seed Jelena Jankovic.

The 23-year-old from Hull battled hard, fending off five set points at 5-2 in the opening set, but was ultimately outclassed.

"I fought my hardest, I'm just really disappointed I made too many errors. I think could have made life a little harder for her," said O'Brien.

"I can definitely complete with these players. I just need to work on my consistency, my shot selection. My tennis is there, it's just a matter of putting it all together."

Britain has not had two women in the second round of a Grand Slam outside Wimbledon since the 1992 French Open.

In reaching the third round, Baltacha matched her 2005 run in Melbourne , but the 26-year-old was especially keen this time to build on a good run of form that has taken her to a career-high ranking.

"There was no tension at all," said the Scot, who had admitted to nerves in her first-round match.

"On paper she was the better player. Deep down I knew I could beat her, though. I knew I've come in with good form. I'm hitting the ball much better. My tennis has improved quite a few gears.

"And I knew that I could just go out there and just swing freely and kind of just take my game to her. And I did that."

Baltacha hit the ground running out on Court Six, breaking Bondarenko's serve three times as she dominated the first set.

The pressure began to tell in a tense second set but the Briton fought back superbly from 3-0 down to lead by a break, the weight of her groundstrokes proving too much for the 30th seed at times.

Some nervous serving saw Baltacha pegged back to 4-4 but she quickly rediscovered her attacking game to break for 6-5 and served out the match brilliantly, opening the decisive game with successive aces.

"Confidence is the thing that has changed with me. I don't look back anymore," said Baltacha of her mental toughness in the second set.

"That's just what I kept thinking about: no, you are good enough, your tennis is there, you just need to believe in it.

"I think as the set went on, I really did step up. I hit a lot of winners towards the end."

Baltacha's best previous victory was against Bondarenko's sister, Alona, who was ranked 33 at Wimbledon last year.

An even tougher test looms in round three with a clash against world number two Safina awaiting.

"Fantastic. I've got nothing to lose again. I know Safina is a good player, but she has had her blips recently.

"I'm just going to go for it. I've got nothing to lose. I'm very excited about it."

In the men's doubles, Britain's Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski beat Yen-Hsun Lu and Janko Tipsarevic 7-5 6-4, but Ross Hutchins and Australian Jordan Kerr fell to seventh seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-4 2-6 7-6 (7-4).

Fleming and Skupski's win was their first in a Grand Slam and sets up a possible second-round meeting with fourth seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi, who open their campaign on Thursday.

"We're going to go out tomorrow and have a watch of the guys we're playing against," said Skupski.

"Bhupathi and Mirnyi are the seeds, and they could potentially go through. It's going to be a tough match.

"But we feel like we can beat anybody at the moment, as we have done since we played [Bob and Mike] Bryan at Queen's. We've beaten them, so there's no reason why we can't beat anybody else."

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