Former British number one tennis player Elena Baltacha has died of liver cancer, aged 30.

Born in Ukraine and raised in Scotland, Baltacha revealed she had the illness in March of this year.

Baltacha, who was British number one for nearly three years, retired from the sport in November 2013.

'We are heartbroken beyond words at the loss of our beautiful, talented and determined Bally,' said husband Nino Severino, who was also her coach.

Baltacha learned she had liver cancer in mid-January 2014, two months after retiring from professional tennis and only a few weeks after marrying.

'She was an amazing person and she touched so many people with her inspirational spirit, her warmth and her kindness,' added Severino.

Baltacha was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic liver condition which compromises the immune system, aged 19.

Despite her illness and multiple injury problems, Baltacha went on to reach the Australian Open third round in 2005 and 2010 and reached a career-high world ranking of 49.

She won 11 singles titles, made the third round of Wimbledon in 2002 and was part of Great Britain's Fed Cup team for 11 years.

The current women's British number one Laura Robson took to Twitter to pay tribute to her 'team-mate'.

She tweeted : 'Impossibly sad. Forever a team-m.