Baltacha out of Birmingham

Baltacha, whose match was held over from Wednesday because of weather delays, took the first set in a tie-break but the 17-year-old Russian fought back to claim a 6-7 6-3 7-6 victory in two hours and 31 minutes.

With matches backing up Pavlyuchenkova now faces the prospect of playing her third round clash against India's Sania Mirza, who knocked out British number one Anne Keothavong on Wednesday, later today.

The first set went with serve before the 25-year-old Baltacha edged ahead to take the lead. Games also went with service in the second set, which was interrupted by a brief rain shower, until the Briton was broken to go 5-3 down.

Pavlyuchenkova, the world number 31 and 77 places above her opponent, seized the advantage to level things up.

The third set mirrored the first but this time it was Pavlyuchenkova who was quickest out of the blocks in the tie-break and she closed out the match in relative comfort.

Former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova followed Baltacha on to Centre Court at Edgbaston to complete her unfinished match against American Alexa Glatch.

The overnight score stood at 6-3 5-4 to the Russian and having waited so long to finish off her opponent she was on court barely a few minutes before rain forced play to be postponed with Glatch advantage up in the 10th game.

Fortunately the delay was brief and it worked in Sharapova's favour as she returned to break her opponent to win 6-3 6-4 and set up a meeting with seventh seed Francesca Schiavone, also scheduled for later in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Italian duo Schiavone and Roberta Vinci, 14th seed, were comfortable winners over Mariya Koryttseva and Lilia Osterloh respectively, while fourth seed Na Li, of China, was taken to three sets by Slovakian Jarmila Groth before winning 6-4 2-6 6-1.