Baltacha pulls off hair-raising triumph

Get out the flags. Hang up the bunting. Sell your granny and a buy a life-size, gilt-edged poster of Elena Baltacha. The 18-year-old wild card, born in Kiev, raised in Ipswich and Perthshire and now resident in Enfield, north London, yesterday played the match of her life to eliminate the No 32 seed, Amanda Coetzer, and become the first British women in the third round since 1998.

After a gutsy and powerful display that saw her come from a set behind, Baltacha, ranked No 295 in the world, eventually prevailed in three sets, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, over an opponent who lies 258 places above her in the world order.

Coetzer, always full of energy and never one to bow out easily, had an uncanny knack in the mid-1990s of repeatedly beating Steffi Graf in her heyday. In 1997 she joined an élite band of players – including Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova – to beat the German three times in one year. Yesterday it was her turn to be on the receiving end of an unexpected giant-killing.

Baltacha now faces the unseeded Elena Likhovtseva of Russia, who progressed yesterday by upsetting the No 5 seed, Kim Clijsters. Keen for the celebrations not to get too rowdy, Baltacha pointed out that Likhovtseva beat her in straight sets in Eastbourne last week.

"It still hasn't hit me," said Baltacha as she arrived at her post-match press conference in a sponsor's T-shirt bearing the slogan "fcuk fear". "Before the match I was just thinking 'Stay positive, play my game, be aggressive'. It still hasn't sunk in yet. But I had lots of fun out there. People were going bananas. My hair was standing up on the back of my neck."

Yesterday was all the more remarkable because Baltacha has been ill of late. In the last four months she has suffered with chicken pox, flu and food poisoning. Three bouts of tonsillitis were thrown in for good measure. It's a wonder she managed to drag herself away from the doctor long enough to make it to SW19, let alone progress so far.

The expectation, of course, had been she would immediately fall prey to that most virulent of bugs, Puella Britannici. It is a terrible summer affliction and affects most female British competitors arriving at the All England Club. Within hours of flashing a wild card at the security guard, the victims are usually propelled back out the gate with the force of ball from a cannon.

The force yesterday was distinctly with Baltacha, who had clearly found an antidote. She is a solidly-built athlete whose father, Sergei, was a footballer for Ipswich and the Soviet Union and whose mother, Olga, was an Olympic-standard pentathlete. When rattled in games, she also has attitude. Her racket lost in one first-set scrap yesterday after being stamped on and put beyond use.

The turning point came at the end of a lengthy fifth game in the second set, when a lob sealed a key break for 3-2. She never looked back, producing plenty of trademark big serves and booming groundstrokes. There were dozens of unforced errors too, but her nerve held and another break early in the decider saw her maintain momentum.

Uncharacteristically, she started coming to the net with success and even her smashes, forehand drives and occasional chips came off with more frequency than usual. The winning point, when it came, was an ace. A fitting end to a rare occasion for British women's tennis.