Baltacha falls to Kuznetsova

British number one Elena Baltacha pushed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round of the US Open but found the former champion just too strong.

It was a tough draw for the Scot against the 15th seed, who won the title at Flushing Meadows in 2004, and, after a bright start, she slipped to a 6-4 6-3 defeat.

Against Jamie Hampton in round one, Baltacha had started slowly, but today, in front of a sizeable crowd on Court 11, she raced into a 3-0 lead.

The Scot was having particular success on her first serve, but when she missed that, Kuznetsova was able to take control of the rallies and the Russian broke back in the fifth game and then made it four games in a row.

Baltacha, who looked extremely fired up, stopped the rot at five games but it was not enough to prevent her opponent taking the opening set.

And the 28-year-old then made a bad start to the second set, losing her serve immediately when Kuznetsova did superbly to anticipate a volley on break point.

The one guarantee with Baltacha is that she will battle all the way and she fought her way back from 0-40 in game five, but, despite a couple of small openings, she could not find a breakthrough on the Kuznetsova serve.

Baltacha, who has made the second round of five consecutive grand slams, saved two match points on her own serve but she could not save a third and Kuznetsova wrapped up victory in 82 minutes.

Baltacha, who had been unhappy with a number of line calls, refused to shake umpire Arnaud Gabas' hand at the end of the match and stormed off court.