Ipswich tennis star Elena Baltacha bowed out of the French Open as the British number one lost in straight sets to US Open champion Samantha Stosur today.

For a while in the opening set, Baltacha managed to trouble world number six Stosur, but after coming back from a break down she then lost seven successive games to suffer a 6-4 6-0 first-round defeat.

Baltacha, 28, said afterwards: “I knew it was going to be a difficult match. I knew as well that if I played really well, maybe she had a bit of an off day, then potentially maybe I would have had a chance (but) I knew I would have to play a very, very big match.

“First set I felt like I was kind of in it; obviously I crawled my way back to 5-4.

“I didn’t particularly play a great service game, but then you’ve got to remember that I did play one of the best clay-court players in the world so it was a big ask.

“Then she went up a couple of levels, a couple of gears, and she was just too good in the second set.”