Elena Baltacha lifted some of the gloom surrounding British tennis when she came from a set down to beat Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Baltacha's victory - coming after the expected victory by Andy Murray over Robert Kendrick, the American, at least helped redress some of the balance after what had been another truly dismal day up to that point as it looked like Britain’s Wimbledon fortunes had slumped to an all-time low at with the worst-ever showing by home players in the Open era.

After no wins on the first day, there was early disappointment for British players on day two of the Championships as Anne Keothavong, Katie O'Brien, Georgie Stoop, Dan Evans, Josh Goodall and Alex Bogdanovic all lost their first-round matches before Andy Murray later came to the rescue.

The biggest disappointment was Keothavong, the British No 1, who had been expected to comfortably beat beat Patricia Mayr on Court No 4 after some good form this year. She has a set point in the first set when Mayr served at 3-5, but Keothavong then lost four games in a row to lose the first set 7-5.

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• How the day two action unfolded

The Londoner began the second set well, breaking Mayr in the first game. But she struggled with her own serve and was swept aside 6-2. It was Keothavong's seventh first round exit at the Championships. In nine years of competing at the All England Club, she has won just two matches.

Keothavong’s defeat was one of the most disappointing on another day of British woe at Wimbledon, and she was upset enough with her own performance - trying unsuccessfully to fight back the tears at her post-match press conference - to worry about the collective failure of the home players.

“I can’t speak for the other girls. I can only focus on my own tennis - that’s hard enough as it is," she said. “The other girls, I’m sure, have tried their hardest. You can’t guarantee the results at the end of the day but I think you can definitely guarantee that all the British girls have tried 110 per cent.”

She added: “Although right now it’s really hard to look at all the positives, I’ve still got to look. I’ve got a lot to look forward to in the summer, and [I’ll] have another bash at it.”

O'Brien was beaten by 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 by Iveta Benesova, the world No 35 from the Czech Republic. The 23-year-old from Hull was a break up at 3-1 in the final set, but was pegged back to 3-3 and Benesova broke again at 5-4 and served out the match.

“I probably had more chances but she took the ones that she had,” O'Brien said. “She played better on the more important points.

There was also a late crumble from Stoop, the 21-year-old from Cambridge, who had battled back to one set all against Vera Zvonareva, the No 7 seed when bad light halted play overnight. But at 4-4 in the deciding set, Stoop was broken and the Russian served out to complete a 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 victory.

Goodall, who was level at one set all with Micahel Llodra, of France, overnight was beaten at the death in five sets. Goodall, the British No 2, had been a break up in the third set, but lost it 6-4. But he then battled back to win the fourth set, 6-3. It was 4-4 in the final set when Llodra broke and he then served out the match for a 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 success.

Bogdanovic was not even able to take a set of Tomas Berdych, the 20th seed from the Czech Republic, who prevailed 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Evans, the world No 304, was always up against it against Nikolay Davydenko, the powerful Russian and No 12 seed, and was beaten in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3. Laura Robson, Mel South and James Ward were all beaten yesterday.

“If you look at it on paper, it’s horrible for me but I think I did well out there,” Evans said. “He makes the same errors as I make, he just doesn’t do as many. In a way, it’s good what happened today. Obviously I lost, which is not good, but it’s good to find out what the level is.”

Venus Williams, the defending champion and No 3 seed, was a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland. There was also a straight sets win for Dinara Safina, the No 1 seed from Russia, who beat Lourdes Dominguez Lino, of Spain, 7-5, 6-3.

Jelena Jankovic, the No 5 seed from Serbia, beat Julia Goerges, of Germany, 6-4, 7-6, while Caroline Wozniacki, the No 9 seed from Denmark, beat Kimiko Date Krumm, of Japan, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1. Na Li, the No 19 seed from China, beat Galina Voskoboeva, of Kazakhstan, 7-6, 6-0.

Juan Martin del Potro, the No 5 seed, who is in Andy Murray's half of the draw, was an impressive winner, defeating Arnaud Clement, 6-3, 6-1, 6-2. Other seeds to go through in the men's draw included Andy Roddick, Fernando Gonzalez, Tommy Haas, Jurgen Melzer and Victor Hanescu, while Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 champion, beat Robby Ginepri in straight sets.