Marion Bartoli (photo ©Charlie Cowins) shocked the tennis world a few hours ago when, after losing in the second round of the Cincinnati tournament, announced her retirement from professional tennis. The French player claimed she has too many physical problems, to an Achilles tendon, to a shoulder and to her back, to be able to keep on playing.
Marion Bartoli was born on October 2, 1984 in Le Puy-en-Velay, France. She started playing tennis when she was 6 years old and from a young age she was influenced by the style of play of Monica Seles, from which she copied the two-handed strokes with both the forehand and with the backhand.
Marion Bartoli’s father, Walter, has been a doctor for years and over time devised for her truly unique training methods, such as the use of balls of different colors and sizes to improve her hand-eye coordination. He left the medical profession to become his daughter’s coach.
Marion Bartoli started playing ITF tournaments in 1999 then moved to WTA tournaments and the Grand Slams. She started to get interesting results slowly, partly because her technique was initially very raw, for example with a very cumbersome service movement. In 2006 she started winning her first WTA tournaments in Auckland, in Tokyo and Quebec City.
In 2007, Marion Bartoli won no tournaments but created one of the biggest upsets in tennis history by reaching the final at Wimbledon after defeating Justine Henin in the semifinals. The French lost the final to Venus Williams. At the end of the year, she played the WTA Tour Championships thanks to Serena Williams’s withdrawal and finished the season at no. 10 of the WTA rankings.
Also due to some injuries, only in 2009 Marion Bartoli managed to win a tournament again, in Monterrey, and a few months later in Stanford too. In 2010 she had a few decent result but didn’t even play a final, however in 2011 she returned to victory in Eastbourne and again in Stanford.
At the beginning of 2012, Marion Bartoli reached no. 7 in the WTA rankings, her best position. During the year, however, she won no tournaments. In 2013, she achieved her greatest result with her victory in Wimbledon.
Maybe Marion Bartoli has realized that she had fulfilled her dream by winning the most prestigious tournament in the world and felt that she had no more chances of getting comparable results. Because of her weight the stress on her body is remarkable, also because she’s always moving, even between points.
Marion Bartoli was a really unique tennis player, not only for her style but also for her choices. she hasn’t played in the Federation Cup because she wanted to have her father as a coach there as well and for this reason she didn’t play in the Olympics.
In her retiring Marion Bartoli has proven to be unique as well. Some claim that she’s going to regret it and will come back. It’s of course possible but such decisions don’t come suddenly, without thinking about it very well.
I admit that I never liked Marion Bartoli as a player but I find her decision really brave. Instead of risking to go on for a few more years stopping frequently because of her physical problems she’s leaveing tennis as a winner.
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