Elena Baltacha was recognised by the International Tennis Federation yesterday, with the award of the Lifetime Fed Cup Heart Award, a small token of thanks for the late Scot's commitment to the Fed Cup and her effect on the sport.
It was an emotional occasion in the museum at Roland Garros, with Baltacha's husband, Nino Severino, and Judy Murray, the British Fed Cup captain and a close friend of the 30-year-old, among those in attendance. "In the last two-and-a-half years, I had the honour to be her Fed Cup captain," Murray said. "She was a role model to young players. She was an amazing competitor and had the heart of a lion."
The award, accompanied by a $10,000 donation to the Rally for Bally campaign, was recognition of Baltacha's unwavering support for the Fed Cup, in which she represented Britain 39 times.
Murray also singled out her impact on the young players and one of them, Isabelle Wallace, said yesterday that she carries words of advice from Baltacha as she progresses through the junior ranks.
Wallace was narrowly beaten yesterday in the third round of the girls' event but showed the kind of battling qualities that Baltacha so espoused and then revealed that she carries with her a piece of advice from the former British No.1.
"I hit with her on clay [last year] and lost 6-0, 6-0," said the 17-year-old. "She was such a good player; she was too good. When I was at the NTC [National Tennis Centre, in London] she was around a lot and after she beat me, she gave me a talk. A lot of the time when I practice, I lose focus and have bad training sessions. I remember that one time she gave me this talk about working hard and just being ready for everything because if I don't practice well, it's not going to go well in matches. That was really good. I'll always remember it."
Wallace, who moved back to Scotland last year after a brief time representing Australia, is now looking forward to Wimbledon. "I like the grass and I am left-handed, so that helps," she said. "I like the support and I hope [the grass] will be sliding and people will be struggling."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article