'Exhausted' Baltacha takes first title

Elena Baltacha, the British No 3 who reached the third round of this year's Wimbledon, won her first professional title after beating the Irish No 1 Kelly Liggan to win the LTA tournament in Felixstowe on Saturday.

Baltacha, 18, who was also appearing in her first senior final, lost the first set 6-4, but recovered and removed the unforced errors from her game to take the next two sets 6-2, 6-3.

"I just can't believe what's happened to me in the last couple of weeks," she said. "That was tough out there. I'm mentally exhausted after all the ups and downs I've had recently."

Alan Jones, Baltacha's coach, said: "This week has been educational for Bally. Without being too negative, the grass here isn't exactly Eastbourne or Wimbledon, is it? She's the sort of player who needs a perfect bounce to play well, but she's had to learn how to be flexible and not just smack the crap out of everything."

Baltacha, who will move up to British No 2 behind Julie Pullin when the new rankings appear today, travels to Spain for two events before returning home for a week of rest and practice in preparation for US Open qualifying in New York next month.

The Swiss teenager Myriam Casanova upset the top seed Arantxa Sanchez Vicario to take the French Community Championships in Brussels yesterday. A wild card appearing in her fifth WTA event, Casanova claimed her maiden title by rallying for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory.

Casanova, three weeks away from her 17th birthday, beat the third, seventh, sixth and first seeds en route her second career final. She lost her first to Germany's Martina Muller at Budapest in April, but avenged that loss with a straight-sets victory over Muller in the quarter-finals. She also eliminated third seed Cristina Torrens Valero, of Spain, in the first round and sixth seed Virginia Ruano Pascual, of Spain, in the semis.

Sanchez-Vicario was appearing in her first final this season and entered the week having lost three consecutive matches and half of her 28 this season.

The Spaniard, who missed Wimbledon because of exhaustion, looked sluggish as unforced errors crept into her game. "I was quite tired but did I all could," she said.

Mariana Diaz-Oliva claimed her first WTA title yesterday when she fought back to beat the Russian Vera Zvonareva in a three-hour encounter on clay at the Palermo International tournament.

The Argentinian lost the first set 8-6 in the tie-break before winning the next two 6-1, 6-3. "In the second set, Mariana changed her tactics and played with more power," Zvonareva said. "I was not sure what to do."