British No.1 Elena Baltacha hailed 2011 as the best year of her career, after finishing the season as runner-up to veteran Japanese Kimiko Date-Krumm at the $100,000 ITF event in Poitiers.
Baltacha’s best season has got her back inside the World’s Top 50 rankings, despite losing 7-6 6-4 to Date-Krumm in the title match in France.
The 28 year old professional said: “My big goal for the year was to defend the ranking points I had coming off and keep my ranking up, so to have done that and got back inside Top 50 again feels like a really big achievement. I knew that I would have to improve this year to do that and I’ve done it.
“With the Olympics and all the other tournaments coming up, 2012 could be a massive year for me and it will be great to start it ranked around 50, because that gives me a really great platform to build on and it will take a lot of the pressure off during the first few events of the season.”
The Ukraine born athlete’s closest British rival in the world rankings, Anne Keothavong ranked 83, has recently been replaced at second in the LTA rankings by youngster Heather Watson who at only nineteen has a great career ahead of her.
Baltacha’s highest ranking so far was 49 in 2010, but she currently tops the AEGON British Tennis rankings and is set to make even greater progress next year.
She said: “I’ve got eight weeks of hard training now in the pre-season break and I can’t wait because I know what a great opportunity I’ve got next year. I’m going to be very confident and I’ll be even more motivated now, because I know with just a few small improvements I can be even better.”
Robyn Rashford, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
