Outclassed on the day

In the women's singles, two Brits were on display on the fourth day and they both had a lot to live up to having watched their younger countrywoman stride into the third round 24 hours earlier.

The prospect of three home grown players featuring in round three of The Championships would never have been considered at the start of Wimbledon but with the national number three breaking the 10 year-drought, the hopes that the numbers one and two might also progress, were possibilities.

That is until you saw their opponents. First up Anne Keothavong had to overcome Sara Errani, the French Open runner-up and later in the day, Elena Baltacha met the defending champion, Petra Kvitova.

It took Errani just 61-minutes to dispatch the British number one, as she thrashed Keothavong, competing in her 12^th Wimbledon, 6-1 6-1.

The victory was indeed decisive and well illustrated the gap which exists between the 10^th seeded Italian and the Briton world ranked at 77. But it wasn't just the width of the ranking gap for Keothavong, to give her credit, obviously arrived on court forgetting to pack her A game. Her serve was at fault, her groundstrokes lacked power and direction and her movement was well below par.

Errani in contrast, was always able to control the match, despite having a weak serve which the Briton was unable to exploit but Serena Williams, her next opponent, will certainly be able to.

Keothavong, speaking later, was obviously disappointed that she couldn't measure up on this occasion.  "You know, it was always going to be a tough match," she said.  "Sara has been playing some pretty good tennis this year.  She's full of confidence. But I'm disappointed with my own performance because I know I can play better.  I didn't challenge her today as much as I would have liked. And to lose in that fashion is not particularly pleasing."

She continued: "She doesn't give you that much; she's pretty consistent.  Like I said, she's playing with lots of confidence. I felt like I had to be the one who was aggressive, because I knew I was not going to win that match rallying --trying to outrally her.

"She's better at that than I am.  I just felt like I forced it a bit too much. I was a little slower around the ball.  Not sharp enough as I would have liked to have been."

Elena Baltacha had to wait until later in the evening before she was summoned to the Court, the referee deciding to switch the match from No1 to No2 in view of the time. And it wasn't long before she felt the power of the defending champions' shots who swept through the first set in just 22 minutes conceding just 10 points to lead 6-0.

The opening game of the second set saw Baltacha fighting terrier-like but she failed to convert either of the two game points that she earned, eventually conceding it on her fifth breakpoint. Baltacha didn't get into the match until the fifth game of that set but the task of turning it around was too great. Nontheless, Kvitova only claimed it on her third match point, 6-0 6-4.

All Bally could say afterwards, was : "She was just, like, blasting it past me."

Now it is up to Heather Watson to see if the gulf which exists between home grown talent and the international level is closing.