Posts tagged: bartoli

BARTOLI BACKS NADAL

Other people might be a little reluctant to have Rafael Nadal as their pick for the French Open this time around but Marion Bartoli reckons that, in spite of the poor form of the Spaniard, it will be him who is going to lift the trophy at Roland Garros.

According to Bartoli, if it had been any other tournament to be played on clay, then she might have thought twice before picking Nadal as favourite, but simply because it’s the French Open and the matches are going to be of 5 sets, it would be hard for anyone to topple the clay court king. Read more »

BARTOLI THROUGH

Mary Pierce’s countrywoman, Marion Bartoli, has defeated Romina Oprandi of Switzerland in the second round of the US Open at Flushing Meadows. Bartoli had to work hard for this victory. She was a given a tough fight by the Swiss player. Bartoli won the match by 6-2, 1-6, 7-5.  With this victory, Bartoli has made her way to the third round where she will take on her compatriot Kristina Mladenovic.

Oprandi didn’t start the match well. Bartoli broke Oprandi’s service in the 2nd and the 4th game of the first set and won the first four games consecutively to take a lead of 4-0. The Frenchwoman didn’t let Oprandi make a comeback in the set after that and held her service in the remaining games to grab the first set by 6-2. In the second set, Oprandi lifted the standard of her game and played incredibly well. She got a breakthrough in the second game and then, she made her lead more profound by serving out the third game. Although Bartoli held her service in the fourth game, but, that didn’t matter much as Oprandi sealed the set by winning three back-to-back games.

The way Oprandi played in the second set; it seemed that the Swiss player might pull off an upset. But, the experienced Frenchwoman showed brilliant temperament in the final set. There was no breakthrough in the final set till the end of the 10th game and the scores were levelled at 5-5. The set seemed to be going towards the tie breaker.  But, Bartoli turned the game in her favour by breaking Oprandi’s service in the 11th game. Oprandi needed to get a breakthrough in the next game to extend the match, but, Bartoli didn’t let that happen and finished the game with a cracking winner.

BARTOLI SUFFERS

Mary Pierce’s countrywoman, Marion Bartoli, has been defeated in the third round of the Rogers cup by Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic. With this victory, Kvitova has reached the quarter finals. Kvitova literally thrashed the experienced Frenchwoman and won the match in the straight sets by 6-1, 6-1. The scorecard itself indicates towards the dominance of Kvitova in the match. It took her less than an hour to knock Bartoli out of the tournament. This was the fourth game between these two players and Kvitova defeated Bartoli for the second time.  Bartoli committed a lot of mistakes and didn’t manage to capitalize on the opportunities that she got in the match. She served a total of 5 double faults in the match. She got three breakpoints, but, she wasn’t able to take advantage of any of them.

Kvitova broke Bartoli’s service twice in each set and won both the sets easily. She rattled Bartoli with her powerful shots. Bartoli is an experienced player and she was supposed to give tough fight to Kvitova. But, she looked completely off colour. In the post match interview, Bartoli herself admitted that she was outplayed by Kvitova. As per Bartoli, Kvitova’s performance was phenomenal in the match. She never let her settled into the groove and kept flattening her with powerful shots.  She was unstoppable in the match. She hardly missed an opportunity and she deserved to win the match. On the other hand, Kvitova looked delighted after winning the match. She said that she hadn’t expected the match to be one sided. She was expecting a tough fight from Bartoli.  But, she is happy that she won the match with such ease. As per Kvitova, these types of matches make a player confident. In the quarter final, Kvitova will play against Tamira Paszek of Austria.

PIERCE SUPPORTS BARTOLI

Marion Bartoli, the number one ranked French tennis player in the women’s circuit has every right to be furious with the captain of the French Fed Cup team Nicolas Escude for overlooking her for the match against Slovakia, according to some former and current French professional tennis players, who have all taken her side in this war of words between Bartoli and the France Tennis Federation as well as Escude. One of the most notable names who have come out in support of Bartoli is former world number three Mary Pierce.

According to the former two-time Grand Slam winner, Escude should not have let the personal problems come in the way of the team selection for such a prestigious competition as the Fed Cup. Instead, they should have sat down and solved the matter for the betterment of the French team and the sport in general in the country. Mary Pierce also went on to add that France will not have many problems negotiating past Slovakia without Bartoli but she also raised the question as to whether Escude would have had the guts to leave Bartoli out had their opponents been stronger such as the United States of America or Serbia and the likes.

Not only Pierce, another former French player who has taken the side of Bartoli in this debate is Arnaud Clement. He also added that his onetime Davis Cup team mate Nicolas Escude should know better than to leave out the most experienced player from the side and he hoped that this would not be repeated in the future and their problems off the court would be settled off it.

With the support that Bartoli is getting from Clement and Mary Pierce, it seems that round one of this debate has gone to her and it is worth seeing what Escude does for the next tie.