Elena Baltacha secures first win of the clay season
Last updated on .From the section Tennis
British number one Elena Baltacha secured her first win of the clay-court season with victory over Jill Craybas at the Suez Open in France.
The Scot defeated the experienced American 6-4 1-6 6-2 in the first round of the ITF event at Cagnes Sur Mer.
However, Londoner Anne Keothavong lost 6-3 6-4 to Anna Tatihsvili of Georgia.
British number three Heather Watson plays Russia's Valeria Savinykh on Tuesday.
Baltacha lost her first clay match of the year at the Barcelona Open last week but bounced back impressively.
"I knew I would have to play some high quality and aggressive tennis to break down her game and I felt I did that," she said.
"This has given me lots of confidence going into the next match and the rest of the clay-court season."
She added: "Clay is a challenge for me but I put in some hard work in at the La Manga Club in Spain before I started playing tournaments and it's great to see it paying off."
It was a less successful day for Keothavong, but she told Twitter: "Tough first match on the dirt today but considering how I've been in practice, it wasn't such a bad performance. Can and will only improve."
