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

By Mark Ashenden

Elena Baltacha was brushed aside by Dinara Safina in a 6-1 6-2 defeat in the third round of the Australian Open.

The British number one began nervously but after breaking back to trail 2-1, the errors crept back in and the 26-year-old lost the opener in 26 minutes.

Second seed Safina cruised through the second set and served out to wrap up a convincing win in less than an hour.

"I think overall it was a little bit disappointing as I'd have liked to have played a little better," Baltacha said.

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.

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"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."

Baltacha would have fancied her chances of at least troubling the Russian former world number one after matching her best performance at a Grand Slam by seeing off Kateryna Bondarenko, world ranked 32, in the previous round.

The Scot had never previously faced Safina, 81 places above her in the rankings, and was decimated in the first two games but bounced back with a shock service break to gain a glimmer of hope.

More double faults followed though and Safina raced to take the opening set without breaking into a sweat.

Apart from two impressive back-hand winners, Baltacha did not have the weapons to cause an upset against the Russian 23-year-old, who reached the final in Melbourne last year on her way to claiming top ranking before ending the season with a back injury.

The demolition continued in the second set and Safina broke in the fourth and seventh game before completing the win in 57 minutes to set up a clash with compatriot Maria Kirilenko or Italian Roberta Vinci.

There was better British news with Laura Robson, a day after celebrating her 16th birthday, winning her second-round doubles match with Sally Peers against 12th seeds Chia-Jung Chuang TPE and Kveta Peschke.

The Briton, who was born in Melbourne, lost in the second round of qualifying in the singles last week to Michaella Krajicek.

Britain's doubles number one Sarah Borwell and her American partner Raquel Kops-Jones lost out to number 13 seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta in a 7-5 6-2 defeat.

Murray is not expected to have too many problems against 28-year-old Serra, who beat Jarkko Nieminen over five sets in the previous round.

The pair have never met before but Murray's form in Melbourne looks good with the British number one, seeded fifth, having only dropped 12 games in his opening two matches.

Should he come through, Murray will face Gael Monfils or American John Isner as he looks to get beyond the fourth round in Melbourne for the first time.

Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro all play their third-round matches on Friday, along with Belgium's Kim Clijsters.

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