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By Oliver Brown For Elena Baltacha, it took just 48 hours for the euphoria of a Wimbledon win to be replaced by the quintessentially British ritual of treating a defeat as a "positive experience". We should, of course, hesistant about being harsh on a player who has been through tonsillitis, chicken pox, back surgery and a liver infection but in China's Jie Zheng, Baltacha lost to a woman who had been out of the game for nearly a year nursing her own injuries. A bridge too far: British No 5 Elena Baltacha was unable to get the better of China's Jie Zheng on Court No 2 Zheng continued to have protection on a suspect ankle throughout her routine 6-2, 7-5 victory, so it was a little alarming that she looked almost nimble next to Baltacha. The British No 4 has, through unstinting effort and an endearing emotional vulnerability,... [read full story]
