Elena Baltacha column

Wimbledon R2: Baltacha loses to Peng 6-4 2-6 5-7

Of course I'm still disappointed and I know that I had an opportunity against Shuai Peng, but I'm playing the best tennis of my career right now and I showed that on Friday.

It just came down to one or two points and credit to her for taking those.

Even though I was playing someone ranked 20 in the world, I didn't feel outclassed at all because I have been delivering that sort of tennis over and over again during the last few months, so it never felt like a step up. Most importantly, I know that I can keep pushing upwards.

Because I played well on clay and again on grass, my ranking has gone up around 30 places in the last two months and I will probably be ranked just outside the world's top 50 when Wimbledon is over.

That's a fantastic platform to build on and from here it's all about keeping up the high standard I've set myself, through the summer tournaments in the United States and onto the US Open and beyond.

It's taken me years to learn to play well week-in and week-out because that kind of consistency is much harder to achieve than having one great tournament every so often.

That should be the next goal for both Laura Robson as well, because both of them have massive potential. The most important thing for both of them is to just keep working hard and trying to improve every week.

I didn't see Laura's match against Maria Sharapova because I was playing my match at the same time but judging by the scoreline she obviously gave her a scare, which is a fantastic effort.

It's great that Laura has won a match at Wimbledon and I'm sure that she picked up lots of great experience against Sharapova.

The next step for her is to keep her head down, keep working hard and try to come up with performances like that consistently. Wimbledon is great but playing well here isn't the be-all and end-all. She needs to build up her ranking and keep trying to develop, tournament by tournament.

Heather has done a good job of that so far this year and it's great that we now have three British women in the top 100 again, with me, Heather and Anne Keothavong.

Anne and I are both nearly 28 so there's no doubt that long term, the future belongs to Laura and Heather.

We're very lucky to have them and things in British women's tennis are certainly looking a lot brighter than they were five or 10 years ago. I hope that continues.

I intend to keep doing my bit and I love having other players chasing me in the rankings. As you may have noticed, I'm a little bit competitive and it just spurs me on.

There is a lot more to come from me because I know that I haven't peaked yet.

Some defeats are easier to take than others and though I had that familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach when I walked off court after losing to Peng on Friday, it didn't take long before I started to feel a lot better.