Move over Mr Murray, Bally's in town

Andy Murray is in danger of losing his dominance of the Australian Open headlines to a fellow Brit. Her name is Elena Baltacha and in knocking out No.30 seed Kateryna Bondarenko she is doing her best to put the women’s game back on the map. Dinari Safina lies in wait in round three and Baltacha could well go down with a whimper, but for the moment let her revel in the spotlight. Neil Harman of the Times has taken a look into Baltacha’s routine and there is a secret weapon in her camp.

Elena Baltacha does not have a coach in the accepted sense of the word. Nino Severino describes himself as a “project manager” and the aspiration is to make the utmost of what is left of the 26-year-old’s career that has had more stops and starts than the lights at the top of Regent Street. So far, in this Australian Open, the two British No 1s have forfeited a single set in four matches. Andy Murray completed his second straight-sets victory, a 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 cruise against Marc Gicquel, which means that he will meet Florent Serra, another Frenchman, in the third round and, quite possibly, a third in succession, Gaël Monfils, in the last 16. Baltacha’s 6-2, 7-5 thumping of Kateryna Bondarenko, the No 30 seed from Ukraine, leaves her with the fascinating prospect of a duel with Dinara Safina, the world No 2 from Russia, to come next. Baltacha should not reflect too long on the last time Safina met a British No 1 in a grand-slam tournament, last year’s French Open, when Anne Keothavong was dispatched without a game to her name.

Nino Severino is the man driving Baltacha on and he has made it clear that distractions will not be tolerated.

It’s about doing what we can to secure the future for Bally, putting down realistic expectations and keeping her away from people who might mess with her mind because we don’t have all that much time to play with from her career standpoint. She’s not 16, after all. I vet people very close to her, to make sure that she only hears the right things. Just recently I had to ask someone who had been working with her not to come back again; he was becoming too disruptive. We are very careful the way we manage everything around her.