Liga Dekmeijere slaps the ball back while scoring another victory with her doubles partner Elena Baltacha of Great Britain. Photo by Patrick Nemes/PNP Media.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Little heard-of Latvian Liga Dekmeijere is the only Baltic player remaining in the Australian Open.

Dekmaijere failed to gain mention in an earlier Baltic Reports preview of the Baltic players participating in Melbourne, but they can be excused when one considers that she currently holds a singles ranking of 825, although her doubles ranking of 70 is more healthy.

In modern day tennis little attention is given to doubles with most of the focus and money being on singles. Subsequently few players choose the path of just playing doubles, but this appears to be what Dekmeijere is doing as she moved through to the second-round of the women’s doubles. She and her British partner Elena Baltacha recorded a sound 7-6, 6-2 victory over Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak and Czech Lucie Safarova. They will now face 15th seeds Maria Karilenko of Russia and Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the second-round.

Estonian Kaia Kanepi had a forgettable day, losing her second round singles tie 4-6, 4-6 to 19th seed Nadia Petrova of Russia, before returning to the court to also lose her first-round doubles tie. Partnering up with German Jasmin Woehr, they were able to push their higher ranked opponents Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia to a tie-breaker in the first, only to fall 7-5. Their opponents then managed to break their serve in the next set to go through 7-5, 6-4.

Anastasija Sevastova did not fare much better than Kanepi, also succumbing in the first round. Paired with Maria Kondratieva of  Russia, they were able to push their opponents to three sets, Yanina Wickmayer of Belguim and Virginie Razzano of France before falling 5-7, 6-3, 2-6.