British interest ends as Baltacha departs

British interest in the DFS Classic ended with the exit of Elena Baltacha on a day that saw the departures of leading seeds Alicia Molik and Marion Bartoli.

The 21-year-old Baltacha had never been past the first round in Birmingham in three previous attempts and, pitted against a player below her in the world rankings, had high hopes of reaching the last 16.

But the big-serving British number one met her match in 24-year-old qualifier Milagros Sequera, from Venezuela, who followed up her first-round defeat of veteran American Lisa Raymond with a 6-4 6-2 victory on centre court.

Baltacha could not break her smooth-hitting opponent and lost the first set after dropping her serve in the 10th game.

The booming first serve on which she relies so heavily deserted her in the second set and she was broken twice by the 123-ranked Sequera, who became one of three qualifiers in the last 16.

It was a double fault from Baltacha that gave her opponent match point and it was all over after an hour and 22 minutes.