By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
At the start of Wimbledon, many were predicting that the women’s singles champion would win the title without losing a set.
Except just about everyone believed that it would the dominant No. 1 Serena Williams who would turn the trick and not Marion Bartoli.
To conclude one of the quirkiest, unusual women’s Wimbledon fortnights in history, Bartoli, perhaps the most eccentric women’s player on the tour today, won the Wimbledon women’s singles title without the loss of a set, defeating Sabine Lisicki 6-1, 6-4 in the championship match.
Bartoli is one of the few players who hits both forehands and backhands double-handed and is the first player of that style to win a Wimbledon singles title. Seeded No. 15, she is the lowest ranked player to win the Wimbledon women’s title since Venus Williams, seeded No. 23 and ranked No. 31, beat her in the 2007 Wimbledon final, her only previous appearance in a major tournament final. To accent the surprise of Bartoli’s championship run, she had not advanced passed the quarterfinals of any tournament so far this year and had not won a title since 2011.
Lisicki, seeded No. 23, was the betting favorite to win the title against Bartoli, the big-serving German ending the 34-match win streak of defending champion and world No. 1 Serena Williams in the fourth round and No. 4 seed and defending finalist Aga Radwanska in the semifinals. Bartoli emerged from the bottom half of the draw that was vacated of its top two seeds, No. 2 Victoria Azarenka, who pulled out in the second round due to injury, and No. 3 seed Maria Sharapova, who lost in the second round.
Against Lisicki, Bartoli was broken in her opening service game of the match, but reeled off six games in a row as Lisicki was not able to get over her nerves and gravity of the situation. Bartoli actually led 6-1, 5-1 and nearly closed out the most lopsided Wimbledon final since Billie Jean King beat Evonne Goolagong 6-0, 6-1 in 1975. Lisicki held serve for only the second time in the match to make the score 2-5, then broke Bartoli to make it 3-5. She then held serve for 4-5, before Bartoli served out the match at love, sealing the title with an ace out wide.
Much has been written about the unusual mannerisms on court, including frequent kangaroo hops and wild practice swings, her unorthodox groundstroke style and unique serving motion. Her practice sessions have featured elastic bands, weights around her ankles and other contraptions, mostly used for resistance training. Most of the training methods were instituted by her father Walter, a former doctor, who worked as her coach since she started playing the game at age 6. Her dedication to staying with her father as her coach prevented her from playing Fed Cup for France for many years, due to French Tennis Federation coaching rules at those events, costing Bartoli an opportunity to compete in the 2012 Olympics. However, Bartoli ended her coaching relationship with her father earlier this year and has been mentored by Amelie Mauresmo, the French Fed Cup captain and the last French woman to win Wimbledon in 2006.
Bartoli had played 47 major tournaments before winning her first major title, which, according to ESPN, is the most in the Open era before winning a first major title. Bartoli lost only eight games combined in her semifinal win over Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium and the final against Lisicki and is also the only player to win Wimbledon with beating a top 10 player en route.
“She really embraced the moment. It really helped that she had been there before” said Mary Joe Fernandez on ESPN, noting that Bartoli played a lot more calm than Lisicki, who experienced more “emotional turbulence,” crying on court in the latter stages of the match when she trailed 6-1, 5-1.
“She just seized the moment,” said Pam Shriver on ESPN of Bartoli. “She knew that this was her opportunity. The draw was not going to open up her like this ever again”
