• Straight sets win over 30th-seed Kateryna Bondarenko
• Will now face No2 seed Dinara Safina in third round

So much has happened to Elena Baltacha in her tennis career that there is probably nothing out there that could surprise her. But the Scot’s outstanding 6-2, 7-5 victory over the No30 seed, Kateryna Bondarenka, might just have convinced her that there could be one or two more shocks in store before she is finished with the Australian Open.

The 26-year-old produced arguably the best performance of her grand slam career to reach the third round here for the second time. The tension that almost paralysed her in her first-round win over Pauline Parmentier of France was gone and, apart from one lapse at the start of the second set, she was the better player, always taking the attack to an opponent ranked 53 places above her. Two breaks gave her the first set and she rallied from 3-0 down to win the second. “Today I knew I had nothing to lose,” Baltacha said. “I knew I could take her on and beat her. It was a matter of carrying out the game plan.”

On a windy day when the sun made serving difficult, Baltacha’s performance was crammed full of aggression and desire, epitomising some of the struggles she has overcome to arrive at this point. She suffered liver damage as a youngster and almost had to quit the sport, before a debilitating injury required surgery. In the summer of 2008, she was considering giving it all up, but the influence of Nino Severino, her coach, convinced her to carry on. Baltacha was the only British woman to win a singles match at Wimbledon last summer and she finished 2009 as Britain’s top-ranked woman.

“I’m in the present now and I’ve got to look forward, that’s the only way,” she said. “I’m just tired of thinking about the past [so] we don’t even discuss it any more. A lot of the time I used to think: ‘It’s that girl with the liver problems, it’s the girl who had back surgery, it’s the girl who could have been a good player who was deemed to have been a good prospect.’ I’m not that any more. I’m OK with that and I just want to move forward.”

If she is going to produce another shock it will be one of far greater magnitude for her next opponent is Dinara Safina, the No2 seed. The last time the Russian came into contact with a Briton, at the French Open last May, Anne Keothavong was on the wrong end of a 6-0, 6-0 drubbing. Baltacha, however, said she had nothing to lose when they play on Friday. “It’s fantastic, fantastic,” she said. “I know Safina is a good player, but she has had her blips recently. I’m just going to go for it.”

Katie O’Brien failed to join Baltacha in the third round after she was outclassed 6-2, 6-2 by the No8 seed, Jelena Jankovic. It was a match in which she said she thought she could have played a little better. “My strategy could have been a little bit better [but] playing such a great player like Jankovic, I maybe thought I had to do more than I did,” she said. “I think if I’d just managed to be a bit more disciplined, I could have put her under more stress. But I’m not too disappointed, I had a great win [on Tuesday].” Her first-round win over Patricia Mayr of Austria gave her enough points to move up to a career-high ranking somewhere in the 70s and she will overtake Baltacha as British No1 if the Scot fails to get past Safina.

It has been a long time since the cry of “Allez!” was heard in the women’s game, but everyone had better get used to it again. In beating the No5 seed, Elena Dementieva, 7-5, 7-6 in the second round, Justine Henin produced the kind of performance that will have sent shivers through her rivals, not least the US Open champion, Kim Clijsters, as the two Belgians could meet here in the quarter-finals.

The two sets took two hours and 50 minutes and the tennis was of such high quality it would have been more than worthy of a grand slam final. Dementieva held set points in both sets only for Henin, who followed Clijsters’s New York success by joining her on the comeback trail, to deny her with typically gutsy play. “I really thought in the tie-break I wouldn’t be strong enough,” Henin said. “When I got the opportunities, and the way I finished on serve and volley, it was the best I could dream of.”

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• Everton ready to cut short struggling striker’s loan deal
• Turkish club’s sporting director in England for talks

Galatasaray are understood to be in talks with Manchester City over signing striker Jo on loan until the summer.

The forward is currently on a year-long loan at Everton, but David Moyes is believed to be ready to return him to City after being disappointed by both his form and his discipline. Jo was recently suspended after making an unauthorised trip to Brazil.

The Turkish club’s sporting director, Haldun Ustunel, is in England for talks over the deal for a player who has failed to make a consistent impact since join City from CSKA Moscow for £19m in 2008.

Galatasaray are also interested in rivalling West Ham United for Blackburn Rovers’ Benni McCarthy.

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Discuss the day’s big issues, send us your favourite links, follow us on Twitter and take a look at our 2010 sport calendar

4.10pm: Erm, scratch that and make it Nigeria v Mozambique. Eurosport have decided to change their schedule … KM

3.59pm: Paul Doyle is on minute-by-minute duty for Egypt v Benin which you can follow here. Egypt are already though to the quarter-finals, while Benin have a chance of joining them. KM

2.40pm: Manchester United finances update: Red Football Joint Venture Ltd, the club’s parent company, has posted accounts showing that its overall debt has swelled to £716.5m. As PA’s report states:

The overall debt figure, not contained in the prospectus for a £500m bond issue released last week, illustrate why the Glazers are so keen to raise cash through bonds to reduce the interest on the debt. Red Football Joint Venture paid out £68.5m in interest on their debts in 2009 but unlike the previous year, returned an overall profit of £6.4m in 2009. In 2008, they returned a £47m loss. The profit can almost entirely be explained by the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid in the summer for £80m.

JD

2.32pm: A couple more blogs for you: Kevin Mitchell rounds up what was day three of the Australian Open and Jamie Jackson discusses how David Sullivan and David Gold can make their seven-year pitch work at West Ham (let’s just hope Sullivan sees sense and ditches that velvet jacket) KM

1.43pm: Paul Wilson has another take on the Manchester derby debate, as he asks: can City ever be bigger than United?

Roberto Mancini doesn’t see why not, although he would say that, wouldn’t he? David Beckham says definitely not, never ever, though the loyal and slightly mischievous lifelong United supporter was not exactly speaking as the voice of impartiality.

What Beckham said was interesting, however, because he said it can never be about just money, it is all about tradition and history …

GSR

1.10pm: Hampshire’s Michael Lumb has agreed an IPL contract with Rajasthan Royals, with a deal agreed for a figure reportedly worth around £30,000. Non-international players can be signed outside of the live auction. Rajasthan’s coach is Lumb’s former county captain Shane Warne. JD

12.25pm: Sid Lowe has just filed on Pep Guardiola using this afternoon’s scheduled Camp Nou press conference to confirm that he’s renewing his contract with the European champions. As Sid notes:

While the deal will be put in place, it will however not be formally signed until the summer – when Barcelona’s new president is voted in. Joan Laporta has reached the end of his term and elections will be held at the end of the season, or perhaps even before. Laporta’s former vice-president, Sandro Rosell, with whom he dramatically fell out, is the current favourite. Guardiola’s continuity is the one issue on which all candidates agree.

JD

11.55am: Liverpool co-owner George Gillett has come out with some words of support for manager Rafael Benítez. Gillett, in the past less enthusiastic with his backing for the manager than Tom Hicks, said:

“We believe if you were to put a list together of the top five coaches, managers in the world, he would definitely be on that list for us. And we think he’s been tossed a curve ball by circumstance, injuries and so forth.

“I think that’s been a real challenge to the coach. He’s had to really make some innovations and play some players out of position and so forth. And notwithstanding that, they’ve generally played with a lot of passion. I really believes it’s a blip.”

So, what do you think? Benítez: one of the world’s top five managers? JD

11.39am: Here’s the update on Sol Campbell suing Portsmouth as it increasingly appears that the club are just plumb out of luck … GSR

11.36am: Barcelona have announced they are to call a press conference over the future of coach Pep Guardiola’s future, amidst mounting speculation over his position. GSR

11.10am: Justine Henin has beaten No5 seed Elena Dementieva 7-5, 7-6, in a gripping match as her comeback gathers pace at the Australian Open. GSR

11.07am: This just in: Portsmouth have confirmed they are being sued by Sol Campbell for fees and bonuses. He has issued a writ through his lawyers for £1.7million. More to follow … GSR

10.30am: OK, morning meeting update:

• More fall-out from last night’s Manchester derby. The FA has already confirmed today that it’s looking into Gary Neville’s finger-flip at Carlos Tevez last night.

• A busy night tonight: the Carling Cup semi-final second leg between Aston Villa and Blackburn. We’ll have MBM coverage from 7.15pm.

• In the Premier League, Arsenal can go top with a convincing win over Bolton at the Emirates, while Tottenham visit Liverpool. We’ll have MBM coverage of the latter from 7.30pm, with regular updates on all the news from Arsenal.

• The Africa Cup of Nations rumbles on. Today we’ll have a MBM report on Egypt v Benin from 3.30pm. Nigeria v Mozambique is the day’s other match.

• As mentioned, Andy Murray has already won at the Australian Open. Elena Baltacha has also reached the third round, while Justine Henin and Elena Dementieva are currently slugging out a belter, and Juan Martín del Potro is on the brink against James Blake. Follow the latest with our live scoreboard.

• Elsewhere, we’ll monitor the Huddersfield Giants story, as mentioned earlier.

• And on the sportblog: Jonathan Wilson will be blogging on Benin, ahead of their game with Egypt and Paul Wilson’s weekly blog will return. JD

10.02am: Andy Murray has just won in Melbourne, he beat Marc Gicquel in straight sets 6-1, 6-4, 6-3. You can catch up with the match in Katy Murrells’ game-by-game report and the latest live scores from the Australian Open. He’s won twice, so now it’s time for the inevitable media knee-jerk moment of asking can he win it? GSR

9.42am: Our award-winning photographer Tom Jenkins was at the Manchester derby last night, you can view his gallery here. GSR

9.38am: Andy Murray is already two sets up against Marc Gicquel at the Australian Open, you can follow him as he surely finishes it quickly with Katy Murrells. GSR

9.35am: Six Huddersfield Giants players have been arrested on suspicion of rape during a pre-season tour. They are being questioned by police in Newcastle. Details are here, more to follow. GSR

8.30am: Good morning and welcome to our daily sports news blog. Throughout the day we will update this page with news, links, and what’s expected to happen in the hours ahead. Time permitting, we’ll try to wade in below the line, answering your questions and comments. JD

8.30am: Good morning and welcome to our daily sports news blog. Throughout the day we will update this page with news, links, and what’s expected to happen in the hours ahead. Time permitting, we’ll try to wade in below the line, answering your questions and comments. JD

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• All Pakistani players unsold in Indian Premier League auction
• PCB chairman: ‘To be excluded without any reason is unfair’

The Pakistan Cricket Board has reacted with fury and disappointment after all of its players were left unsold in the Indian Premier League auction.

Pakistan’s Twenty20 captain, Shahid Afridi, headed a well-decorated group of 11 Pakistan players who made the final list for the auction in Mumbai yesterday, but none of them were bought.

Afridi’s agent yesterday claimed that franchises had been advised not to bid for Pakistan players, while also criticising the Indian government’s stance on working visas.

Now PCB chairman Ijaz Butt has had his say. “We are highly disappointed because we were hoping they would play.

“The IPL had given us the mandate to get permission from our foreign office, to obtain other clearances and to finalise visas. We did all this, but it is a surprise that none of them have been taken at the auction.

“We have been trying to get in touch with the concerned authorities but to no avail. I have asked the sports minister [Ijaz Jakhrani] to speak to his counterpart in India about this.”

Butt said he was aggrieved by the manner in which his players were treated.

“I agree this is a private event, but to be excluded without giving any reason and without looking at the background is unfair,” he said. “If they had told us we would have told the boys not to apply at all.”

Pakistan’s players were not allowed to travel to India for the last edition of the IPL because of the Mumbai terror attacks and, although the tournament was moved to South Africa, they were still barred from participating. Before the start of the second edition of the tournament last year, franchises who had Pakistan players in their squads were advised to either terminate their contracts or suspend them.

But contracts for all players were terminated in December last year when IPL chairman Lalit Modi revealed the players had failed to meet a deadline to submit clearances.

Royal Challengers Bangalore owner Dr Vijay Mallya, who bought England’s Eoin Morgan at the auction, indicated that Pakistan’s players would not be missed.

“I don’t think so at all, they were not there last year in South Africa,” he said. “This auction was more to get in replacements, fill in for players who are unavailable or to get in players whose contracts were bought out.

“We had limited budgets, but more importantly limited slots in the team. I needed a particular skill set and we bid for a player for what we, as a team, determined would fill our need.”

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• Schumacher believes even numbers are unlucky
• 41-year-old happy after test in GP2 car

Michael Schumacher has swapped racing numbers with his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg for superstitious reasons. The seven-time world champion, who is returning to the sport after a three-year hiatus, has opted for No3, with Rosberg moving to four.

“Michael has a preference for odd numbers,” a team spokeswoman said on Wednesday. “He asked if he could be the odd number and we were happy to accept.”

Thirteen is considered unlucky and not allocated while Damon Hill raced with the number zero at Williams in 1993 and 1994 because in each year the reigning champion [Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost] had left the sport.

Odd numbers are not Schumacher’s only foible. The German always wore a ceramic amulet, given to him by his wife and with the initials of his family members, when racing for Ferrari.

In 2004, he left it in his hotel in Bahrain and a team member had to rush and collect it before the race, which Schumacher then won. The German said later that the amulet had made “perhaps the decisive difference”.

Schumacher believes he is back to his physical peak after he tested a GP2 development car for three days in Jerez last week.

Now Schumacher cannot wait to savour Mercedes’ 2010 car that will take to the track for the first time at testing in Valencia from 1 February. Although often stating he would never return to the Formula One, the desire and hunger are back, and that spells danger for his rivals this year.

“After my retirement at the end of 2006 I was very happy. “I felt relieved, freed. I enjoyed that feeling because in my final two years especially, F1 had demanded a great deal from me.

“Not the racing, which I loved all the time, but all those things which relate to living under constant observation. It served me extremely well to be quiet for those three years. It really is as if my batteries are fully loaded.

“My energy is completely restored. I can really notice how the prickle is returning, and how motivated I am because I am so much looking forward to this competition.”

Schumacher said any concerns over a neck injury sustained in a motorbike accident nearly a year ago which forced him to abort a return to Ferrari last year are no longer an issue.

“The after-effects of that accident are long since gone,” said Schumacher on his personal website. “That’s why I was sure the neck would not cause any problems. It was one year ago, that’s over.

“Physically, I have been working out since December and I feel extremely fresh and fit. That was one of the reasons why I felt so good in the car in Jerez. The test was super.

“It went better than I had expected. I immediately felt well in the car, and it was as if I was never gone.

“But then Formula One is another thing. The g-forces are higher, so they are not really comparable.

“That is why I am so looking forward to testing in February. Only then will old feeling be completely back. I can’t wait to be back there.”

That is when his desire will be truly tested, but he is confident he can win further world titles, which is why he signed a three-year deal with Mercedes rather than returning for just one season.

“We want to achieve something together,” assessed Schumacher. “The team we have here is pretty unique, with Ross [Brawn] and his world championship winning team, with Mercedes’ knowhow, with the best engine at the moment, and we want to use that.

“We have a clear aim: we want to win the championships. That’s what we will fight for from the beginning. That is my personal goal too.”

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• Glazers’ company Red Football Joint Venture Ltd files accounts
• Company paid £68.5m in interest payments on debts in 2009

Manchester United’s parent company’s overall debt has swelled to £716.5m, their latest accounts reveal.

The company, Red Football Joint Venture Ltd, which is owned by the Glazer family, filed accounts today for the year ending 30 June 2009, showing their overall debt has gone past £700m for the first time, increasing by £17m from £699mi.

The biggest rise has come in the payment in kind (PIK) loans, which typically have a higher interest rate, which show a £27m increase to £202m. Bank loans, meanwhile, have dropped by £9m to £509m.

The overall debt figure, not contained in the prospectus for a £500m bond issue released last week, illustrates why the Glazers are so keen to raise cash through bonds to reduce the interest on the debt.

Red Football Joint Venture paid £68.5min interest on their debts in 2009, but unlike the previous year, returned an overall profit of £6.4m in 2009. In 2008, they returned a £47m loss.

The profit can almost entirely be explained by the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid in the summer for £80m. Red Football Joint Venture’s accounts record an £80.7m profit on “disposal of players” compared to a £21million profit in 2008.

A spokesman for the Glazer family insisted that the debt did not have a bearing on the operation of the club.

He said: “The club has a £50m surplus to work with once the interest payments have been made.”

Manchester United’s accounts also show their chief executive David Gill was paid £1.8million last year.

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• Jackson and Gray called into 30-man squad
• Robinson impressed by Parks’ form for Glasgow

Scotland today recalled Dan Parks and named his uncapped Glasgow team-mates Ruaridh Jackson and Richie Gray in their squad for the Six Nations games against France and Wales.

Parks was controversially omitted for the three autumn internationals, while his fellow fly-half Jackson, 21, was still recovering from a serious shoulder injury.

Gray, a 20-year-old flanker, has been rewarded for his performances this season, including on his Scotland A debut against Tonga two months ago.

Scotland’s head coach Andy Robinson said: “Richie Gray has worked hard to win a place in the squad and has applied himself consistently when playing for Glasgow, and we were also pleased to see Ruaridh back in action there.

“Dan has been playing well and it’s an asset for us to have someone of his ability in the squad.”

Mike Blair, the co-captain, has been left out of the main 30-man squad as he recovers from an ankle injury picked up during the November Tests, but the scrum-half is one of four players invited to train with the team at next week’s four-day camp at St Andrews.

The others are Jim Thompson – the uncapped grandson of the late Bill McLaren – Ross Rennie and Jon Welsh.

The squad also includes Euan Murray, Alasdair Dickinson and Jim Hamilton, all three of whom missed the autumn internationals through injury.

Rory Lamont, the Toulon full-back, may join the squad for the France game provided he comes through a club match next Wednesday unscathed. Richie Vernon, Allister Hogg and Jason White were omitted due to injury. But Ben Cairns, Nikki Walker, Geoff Cross and Scott MacLeod all missed out on selection.

Scotland squad for Six Nations games against France and Wales

Backs: Chris Cusiter (Glasgow), Simon Danielli (Ulster), Nick De Luca (Edinburgh), Max Evans (Glasgow), Thom Evans (Glasgow), Phil Godman (Edinburgh), Alex Grove (Worcester), Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow), Sean Lamont (Scarlets), Rory Lawson (Gloucester), Graeme Morrison (Glasgow), Dan Parks (Glasgow), Chris Paterson (Edinburgh), Hugo Southwell (Stade Français).

Forwards: John Barclay (Glasgow), Johnnie Beattie (Glasgow), Kelly Brown (Glasgow), Alasdair Dickinson (Gloucester), Ross Ford (Edinburgh), Richie Gray (Glasgow), Dougie Hall (Glasgow), Jim Hamilton (Edinburgh), Nathan Hines (Leinster), Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh), Alastair Kellock (Glasgow), Scott Lawson (Gloucester), Moray Low (Glasgow), Alan MacDonald (Edinburgh), Euan Murray (Northampton), Alasdair Strokosch (Gloucester).

Invited to train with the squad at St Andrews (25-28 January): Mike Blair (Edinburgh), Ross Rennie (Edinburgh), Jim Thompson (Edinburgh), Jon Welsh (Glasgow).

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• FA carrying out feasibility study
• Uefa contacted for lowdown prior to October deadline

The Football Association is considering a bid for England to host the 2013 European Under-21 Championship, the first time the country would have staged the tournament.

FA officials are carrying out a feasibility study into whether hosting the tournament would be a practical and commercial success.

Stuart Pearce, the England Under-21 manager who took his team to the final in Sweden last year, is backing a bid. “The FA are carrying out a feasibility study and hopefully that will lead to us bidding for it,” he said.

Pearce added that the possibility of hosting the tournament and the 2018 World Cup made it all the more vital for the National Football Centre at Burton to be completed by the target of mid-2012. “The next decade in football is very important in this country and we hope we can be the hosts for both these tournaments,” he said.

The FA has to submit a bid to Uefa by October but is still waiting for more detail from European football’s governing body about exactly what would be required.

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• Goalkeeper ‘in good spirits’ in Johannesburg hospital
• Three people died in attack on team bus on 8 January

Togo’s goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale is awake and recovering well at the Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg just under two weeks after his team bus came under attack in Angola, a spokesman for the medical centre has confirmed.

The 25-year-old was travelling to the Africa Cup of Nations with the rest of his team-mates before the start of the competition when they were shot at with machine-guns in the Cabinda region of the country.

Three people died in the 8 January incident – the driver, an assistant coach and a press officer – while Obilale had to be flown to South Africa for emergency treatment after sustaining gunshot wounds in the lower back and abdomen.

“He has made extremely good progress,” trauma specialist Ken Boffard told Talk Radio 702. “He is continuing to recover. He is awake, eating, talking and he is in good spirits.”

The France-based goalkeeper had been in intensive care after the attack, which prompted his country to withdraw from the tournament.

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IPL games to be streamed live on YouTube in every country except the US – calling into question the value of TV rights

YouTube has confirmed its first live major sporting deal, announcing today that it will host live Indian Premier League cricket matches in the UK, and casting into doubt the value of British TV broadcast rights.

The YouTube deal involves every country outside the US – a significantly larger scope than reports had suggested. It was thought that YouTube would only stream live matches to countries that did not have TV deals with the IPL.

The two-year deal gives the Google-owned YouTube the exclusive rights to stream IPL matches online, with the two companies splitting revenue from sponsorship and advertising.

In the UK broadcast rights were held by Setanta, which closed last year, and have yet to be sold on. A spokesman for the IPL said that a TV rights deal for the UK would go ahead. “The dedicated loyal fanbase will still want to watch on TV,” he said.

The value of YouTube’s deal was not disclosed. However, the IPL originally sold its internet rights to the Dubai-based company netlinkblue for $50m over 10 years. At the time the IPL made it clear that online streaming deals excluded markets – such as cricket playing nations including such as South Africa and New Zealand – where television broadcast deals were in place. In August 2009, netlinkblue’s parent company, Live Current Media, sold its IPL contract to Global Cricket Ventures for $1.75m, which worked with the IPL on the latest deal.

Willow TV holds the North America internet rights.

Under the IPL deal, YouTube will broadcast 60 matches over 45 days live in the 2010 IPL season through a dedicated channel at youtube.com/ipl. YouTube claims that this is the first major sporting event to be streamed across the globe.

Shailesh Rao, Google’s managing director in India and for media and plaforms in the Asia Pacific region, said: “We are thrilled to have the IPL as our global partner and bring to the YouTube community around the world and here in India an interactive, unique experience building greater awareness around the world for the sport.”

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