The 18-year-old again showed her huge potential, but her experienced Russian opponent proved too strong and emerged a 6-4 7-6 (7-2) winner.

Baltacha showed some nerves early on as she lost her opening service game in the first set on Court Two courtesy of a double-fault.

She grew in confidence as the set developed and she began to find her serving rhythm, but was unable to get the break and fell a set behind.

Likhovtseva had the chance to go ahead early in the second, forcing four break points in Baltacha's opening service game.

But the wild card saved all of them to hold serve and then went a break up by taking the opening game on the Russian's serve.

She held a 4-2 lead and looked to be sending the game into a final set, but she was unable to maintain her advantage and the world number 48 broke back.

Battling qualities

The Scot then looked to have handed the match to the Russian when she dropped her serve in the 11th game of the set to give Likhovtseva the chance to serve for the match at 6-5.

But the powerful teenager, who is ranked 295th in the world, showed her undoubted battling qualities by breaking back to take the set to a tie-break.

However, she ran out of steam and her more experienced opponent raced out to a 5-1 lead and eventually took the decider 7-2.

Baltacha was aiming to become the first British female to reach the fourth round of the women's singles since Sam Smith in 1998.

But the partisan crowd will have been buoyed by the performance of the Kiev-born teenager, who appears to have single-handedly revived the fortunes of women's tennis in Britain.

"I've had a brilliant week and I've learned a lot," she said. "It's been a great boost for the future.

"She's a very good player. In patches I played really well but at the end of the day I didn't win.

"I don't think I'm quick enough and I need to read the game more - there are lots of things I've got to learn."

"It's back to reality next week and a tournament in Felixstowe."