Elena Baltacha during her loss to Dinara Safina during day five of the 2010 Australian Open at Melbourne Park. Photograph: Jon Buckle/PA

Elena Baltacha admitted her disappointment at losing to the second seed Dinara Safina 6-1, 6-2 in less than an hour but said her run at Melbourne Park could act as a spur to a rise in the rankings this year.

The British No1 could not cope with the power of last year's runner-up on the Rod Laver Arena and the swift defeat meant she was unable to surpass her best ever showing at a grand slam, having reached the third round of this tournament in 2005 and at Wimbledon two years ago.

"It was difficult," said the 26-year-old Scot. "It was a great experience for me to play the world No2. All credit to Safina – I think she played really well today. Overall it was a little bit disappointing because I would have liked to have played a little better. I did under-perform. I didn't show her the tennis I know I can play.

"I've got to look on it in a very positive way – I've made the third round this week and I earned my place on Rod Laver today to play Safina. I'm proud of that.

"The start of the year has been fantastic. It's a complete and utter positive, it's just the start of 2010 and I've got the rest of the year to build on it."

Baltacha, who was born in Ukraine, reached a career-high ranking of 83 last week and that is set to climb after her performance in Melbourne, which included a second-round win over the 30th seed Kateryna Bondarenko.