Former British tennis number one
Elena Baltacha has died of liver cancer at the age of 30, her family have
announced.
She died peacefully at her home early on Sunday morning, they said.
Baltacha was diagnosed with the illness in January, just two months after retiring from tennis and only weeks after she married her coach Nino Severino.
"We are heartbroken beyond words at the loss of our beautiful, talented and determined Bally," Severino said in a statement released by her family.
"She was an amazing person and she touched so many people with her inspirational spirit, her warmth and her kindness."
Baltacha was British number one from
December 2009 to June 2012 - 132 weeks - and she won 11 International Tennis
Federation titles.
She played 39 times for Britain in
the Fed Cup from 2003 to 2012 and was also part of Team GB at the London 2012
Olympics.
She was diagnosed at the age of 19
with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic liver condition which
compromises the immune system.
Her agent and friend Eleanor Preston
told Sky News that Baltacha was a "fighter on and off court" and for
that reason her "spirit and memory will live on".
Na Mwanaharakati.
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