Venus Williams today confirmed her withdrawal from the Madrid Masters, due to injury. Daniela Hantuchova replaces Venus an the Masters.

Venus's replacement would have been Marion, but winning the tournament in Linz at the weekend means Hantuchova climbs to 7th in the points race.

We could say that if Marion hadnt had to retire from Zurich then she would have garnered more points. But that's tennis.

Maria Sharapova lies in 8th position. There is a lot of speculation about her fitness. However she states on her website that she does intend playing in Madrid.

If Sharapova or any other top 8 player pull out of the tournament, then Marion is the next in line as replacement.

Irrespect of playing in Madrid or not, Marion has had a very positive year and is entitled to feel achievement and pride.

Marion will actually travel to Madrid. She will be present in a public/media capacity at the very minimum.

As the saying goes... It's not over until the fat lady sings...

PS. Marion isnt related to renowned opera singer Cecilia Bartoli..

A week is a long time in tennis..
www.sport.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-7026423,00.html

Sorry about the broken link above. Here's an alternative http://in.sports.yahoo.com/071026/137/6mgdl.html

EDITED 10/29/07

Unfortunately brave Marion lost her semi final in straight sets.

She was down 3-0 but fought back to draw even at 4-4. The remainder of the set went with serve, unti Marion lost in the tiebreaker.

The 2nd set imitated the 1st. Marion was 4-0 before she got a game in the set.

Marion managed to save 3 match points and mount a mini fightback, eventually losing the set 6-3

This was Marion's 3rd in under 48 hours, on the heels of a week off through injury. So one doesnt need to look far for mitigating factors for todays loss.

I cant say for certain at this stage, but it is likely that this tournament draws a close to Marion's efforts to reach the Masters. However there is always unforseen eventualities like one of the top 8 player withdrawing through injury. Marion is 9th at the moment. Just one position off.

It is inspiring when an athlete doesnt give in. Marion has demonstrated courage and humility throughout this season. She is an unassuming gutsy player. A joy to follow.

Allez Super Marion!!

A strong start again from Marion, saw her break Vakulenko, and hold for 4-1.

Vakulenko served up her 3rd df and lost serve for 5-1.

The final game of the set was the most competitive thus far. Marion saved 3 set points, going on to win the game and first set 6-1.

2ND SET
Perhaps Vakulenko took a little momentum with her from the final game of the first set. She raced to a 4-love lead.

A game against serve game Marion a glimmer in the 2nd set at 1-4 down. However she couldnt hold serve in this set and lost it 1-6.

3RD SET
The 3rd set opened with hard fought games on both players serves. Marion's serve was broken, but she broke back at the middway stage for 3-3 on serve.

The next 3 games went with serve, until Marion broke Vakulenko for the set 6-4, and the match.

A hard fought and deserved victory for Marion. Next she plays Swizz veteran Patty Shnyder in the semi final.

Allez Marion!

From the outset Marion signalled her intent as she hardly dropped a
point, yet extracted several break points from the opening 4
games of the match

The writing was on the wall for Paszek. Under a sustained pounding that wall soon began to cave in from the 5th game, in which Marion broke the Paszek serve to lead 3-2.

Marion didnt drop a game in the remainder of the first set, taking it 6-2.

In the 2nd set Marion hardly lost a point on her serve, coasting to a 5-0
lead. Until...

In another of those incongruous twists that pop up in Bartoli matches, Paszek broke back when Marion was serving for the match! However, Marion succeeded in breaking the Paszek serve once again,
taking the 2nd set 6-1.

A convincing straight sets victory for Marion against the darling of the Austrian crowd.

Next up is Ukrainian Julia Vakulenko. She is ranked 38th in the world. This will be Marion's first meeting with her.

Allez Marion!

POST EDITED 10/26/07


Pics from this evenings match.

Thanks to MK2

Marion will play talented young Austrian Tamira Paszek tonight. It's the first meeting between them.

2nd Round
Centre Court
Linz Austria
8:15pm
Surface; Indoor Hardcourt

Marion is fit and ready to play in Linz!

The injury that caused her retiral last week in Zurich, isnt as serious as first feared - a dislocated knee cap.

Due to a first round bye, Marion will play on Thursday in the 2nd round.

Seven top 20 players feature in this teir 2 event, with Ana Chakvetadze the highest ranked. And the Austrian home favorite Sybille Bammer, also at the event.

1 - Justine Henin
2 - Svetlana Kuznetsova
3 - Jelena Jancovic
4 - Ana Ivanovic
5 - Maria Sharapova
6 - Serena Williams
7 - Ana Chakvetadze
8 - Venus Williams
9 - Marion Bartoli
10 - Daniela Hantuchova

Congratulations to Marion on reaching a career-high singles ranking of #9.

Despite retiring from her last tournament at the quarter final stage, brave Marion has achieved yet another landmark in a season of landmarks for the 23 year old French #1.

INJURY
As yet there is no firm news regarding Marion's injury. I understand that she has undergone further examination on her knee today.

Marion remains on the confirmation list for next weeks tournament in Linz. If by sheer guts she is determined to play in Linz, then she would have to reach the final, and also defend her title in Quebec, in order to gain enough points to overtake Maria Sharapova in the points race. That is what Marion would need to do fufill her end of season ambition of reaching the Masters in Madrid.

Given the nature of Marion's injury, It has to be doubtful that she will decide to play in Linz. We shall see. More news as and when.

It appears that Marion has a knee ligament injury. She will travel home today with her mother, and undergo more detailed examination of her knee. Her father is a doctor and mother a nurse. So she will be in good hands.

During lastnight's match Marion reportedly heard a creaking sound from her knee. This occurred at At 4-4. The knee was immediately bandaged up, and she attempted to continue with the match.

However it was soon apparent that Marion couldnt continue, as she was unable to apply any weight on her knee to serve. She retired from the match a break up at 5-4, and left the court in tears

It now looks likely that this draws a close to Marion's season.

Dissapointing as it must be for her not to reach the Madrid Masters. Marion can take huge encouragment from her progress and achievements this year. Her non self-conscious on-court and off-court manner has won her many fans. Marion Bartoli is one of, if not the, story of women's tennis in 2007. And one thing is for sure, she is a one-off.

Wishing Marion a speedy recovery.

I regret to say Marion had to retire during her quarter final match with Golovin tonight.

Marion was up a break 5-4 in the first set. She had won the last 8 points in a row, and was clearly on a roll heading for the first set. Then...

Details at the moment are sketchy as it was the last match of todays schedule, and only happened just before 9pm UK time.

It appears to be a "leg injury" according to the tournament website.

I am concerned as it was a sudden retiral from a position of authority in an important match. I just hope it was a precautionary retiral rather than reactionary.

This outcome is doubly frustrating as a). It is another blow to Marion's aim of reaching the end of season Championships. And b). I have to confess a win over Tatiana Golovin would have been sweet indeed after her media outburts against Marion a couple of months ago.

Petty of me, I know. But these things fuel rivalry.

Anyways, the most important thing is that our hero heals quick.

Wishing Marion A Speedy Recovery!

Marion's hopes of reaching the Madrid Champs are still alive! This win earns Marion a quarter tie with Tatiana Golovin who defeated Ana Ivanovic.

With both Hantuchova and Dementieva now out of the Zurich Open, the opportunity is there for Marion to put daylight between herself and them in the rankings.

Despite being down an early break, Marion came back to take the first set.

The 2nd set was a little closer than the scoreline suggests. But at crucial points Marion held her nerve and her serve.

Marion really seems to know how to harrass the talented young Dutch girl when the chips are down.

Looking ahead to the match with Golovin. This will be the first meeting between Marion and Tati since the little media spat over the Fed Cup fiasco. I am very intrigued by this contest with her French compatriot. It's another opportunity for Marion to take yet another top 20 scalp.

Bravo Marion!
Allez!

Marion had previously played todays opponent Shuai Peng, twice in her career. The head to head stats stood at one win each.

However Marion is an improved player since Peng achieved her only victory over Marion, in 2004. Marion won their last encounter, in 2006. Peng is ranked #49 in the world.

THE MATCH

A positive start saw Marion go 2-0 up. But 2 double faults on her next service game, and a Peng hold, brought the contest level at 2-2.

The same pattern was repeated with Marion breaking and holding for 4-2. But first serve wasnt perfectly on message in the first set. Once again Peng brought the match on serve 4-3, and saved two break points to hold for 4-4.

With all to play for, both players succeeded in holding their next service games.

Marion earned set point at 6-5 on the Peng serve. But Peng fought off the set point with an ace. Peng then held the game to take the match into a 1st set tie-break.

Marion retrieved a break in the TB to level at 4-4. However Peng won the next 3 points, and a tight first set concluded 7-6 (6/4).

What happened next is straight out of an as yet unwritten book called Marion's Magical Mysteries!!

Despite losing a competitive first set on a tie-break . . Marion proceeded to crush Peng 6-0 in the 2nd set, winning almost every point.

Shell shocked Peng showed a brief flicker of restoring this match to a contest, by holding her first service game in the 3rd set, but the pressure Marion was applying to the Peng serve, coupled with an in form first serve, was too much for Peng to handle.

The Supermarion machine hoovered up the opposition 6-1 in the 3rd set. Match Over.

KRAJICEK IN 2ND ROUND

Marion will play Michaela Krajicek in the 2nd round. The last meeting between the two was in the Wimbledon quarter final.. Which as I recall Marion won

Bravo Marion!

Due to the late withdrawal of Maria Sharapova, Marion will not now play Amelie Mauresmo in the 1st Round of the Zurich Open.

Instead, Marion is now seeded for this event and will play a qualifier tommorrow.

Typically Marion Bartoli would expect to find herself seeded in any tournament including slams, But the Zurich Open has a high calibre field with almost all of the top 30 players competing.

Normally, players ranked around the 100 mark would be involved in preliminary qualifying matches. But for the Zurich Open players such as Maria Kirilenko on the edge of the top 30 found themselves involved in preliminary qualifiers over the weekend.

So even though Marion avoids a match with Amelie Mauresmo in the first round. Every match is bound to be highly competitive.

Allez Marion!

It appears that innacurate information regarding Marion's health was circulated through www.wtaworld.com

The information concerned, emanated from an unreliable source not formally associated with WTAW.

Unsubstantiated or unfounded rumor of this nature, has not, and will not, ever be published in this fan blog.

As a courtesy to the player and in the interest of factuality, it is advisable that wherever speculation is found on the web it should be regarded as just that, speculation - until corroborated or confirmed otherwise.

ZURICH

Marion will play 2006 Wimbledon champion Amelie Mauresmo in the 1st Round at Zurich in the coming week.

Good Luck Marion!

KREMLIN CUP 2nd Round

Once again, after a positive start Marion unfortunately went on to lose the match.

The only very minor blemish in an otherwise perfect first set was a break of serve at 4-1. But Marion still went on to win 6-2.

A seemingly inexplicable collapse in Marion's game is reflected in the 2nd set scoreline of 6-0.

In the 3rd set mercurial Marion came from 4-1 down to level at 4-4. But this plucky fightback wasnt enough and she surrendered 6-4 to the weight of 3 sets and 3 dozen tournaments played in a year.

Any hope of reaching the Sony Ericcson Championships now seem remote. As one friend calculated, she would need to win 2 out of 3 of her forthcoming tournaments.

However It is a credit to her improvement in 2007 that she has put herself in with a competitive chance of reaching the SEC. This shouldnt be forgotton amid one or two dissapointing late season results.

She is provisionally confirmed for forthcoming tournaments in Zurich, Linz and Quebec. Zurich begins on Monday.

It is worth noting that Marion won the Quebec tournament last year. She is an enigmatic player. So whilst I wouldnt rule out the seemingly impossible, it surely wont be easy for a player who's played more events in one season than some other top 10 players play in 3 or 4 seasons! The ubiquitous Bartoli! She just cant put the racquet down lol bless her.

Hantuchova and Marion are in 9th and 10th place in the points race respectively on roughly the same points. To qualify for the top 8 tournament Marion would need to make up 400 points, in order to reach the clump of players sitting in 6th 7th and 8th position around the 2400 mark. Ie; Venus Williams, Serena Williams, and Maria Sharapova.

FIRST SET
Both players held their opening service games.. Marion strongly.

Marion then went on to win the next 4 games. Taking the first 6-2 in half an hour. The match was competitive, with Marion holding the upper hand.

2ND SET
The 2nd set was topsy turvy. Neither player able to hold serve until deep into the set.

Marion was first to serve. She offered up her first double fault of the match at game point. After 2 deuces Alona broke for 1-0. Marion immediately broke back to 15, and held for 2-1.

In the 4th Marion broke again to 30 for 3-1. With Alona bringing the set back on serve 3-2 with a break to 30. Then Marion broke again to 30 for 4-2.

Once again another break to 30, this time for Alona. 4-3. The next game Alona held strongly to love finishing with an ace, 4-4 on serve.

Again at the latter stage of a match Marion begins to labor - but she somehow found the resources within to hold for 5-4 after 6 deuces.

Both players then held tough service games to leave Alona serving to stay in the match at 6-5.

There then followed an injury time out where Marion was given attention for a blister on her foot.

Perhaps this time out was helpful... because Marion broke Alona, winning the match on her 2nd match point in the game.

Marion's opponent had much more winners today. But it's results that matter in the end. And on that count Alona's 45% of total points won to Marion's 55%, shows that Marion was well worth her 6-2 7-5 win.

NEXT ROUND
Next up Vera Dushevina who defeated Eleni Danilidou in straight sets.

On paper this is a match Marion should win. However Marion's win/loss record against Dushevina is a wee bit dodgy. Factor into the match that a partizan Russian crowd will be behind Dushevina.. Then a tough match is clearly in prospect.

Good Luck M!

Great news! Marion has just won against Bondarenko in straight sets.

More on this later.

The 1st round draw for this weeks tier 1 event, the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, was made yesterday.

Once again Marion is paired up with Alona Bondarenko, whom she defeated at Luxembourg a fortnight ago.

Marion is one of the 8 seeds, but being 5th she misses out on a 1st round bye by one place - Top 4 seeds being Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and in an ironic twist Ana Chakvetadze. Ironic because Marion defeated Chaky just 10 ago.

Justine Henin who played last weeks tier 2 event in Stuttgart, is a late withdrawal through injury.

For Marion, gaining a lot of points this week would be most welcome if she harbors any hope of reaching the SonyEricsson Championship. And then hope that the results of her points race rivals such as Hantuchova, go in Marion's advantage.

A repeat of her previous win over Bondarenko will do nicely.

Good Luck Super Marion Bartoli!

Just thought I'd upload a pic of Marion. A pic of superhero in action
cheers one up for the day :-)

She would cringe I am sure if someone called her superhero. She
is much too modest a girl.

She looks like a flower in this one, a tulip, or an orchid, or a fleur de lise!

FAN BLOG DIRECTION
I'm thinking about perhaps broadening the subject matter of
www.marionbartoli.blog.co.uk to include other tennis topics, and non
tennis trivia.

I am thinking about doing this for three reasons,

a). So this blog avoids too much overlap or repititon of content at
www.marion-bartoli.net - The webmaster there does a fine job.

b). So that the tone is opinion-oriented rather than sycophantic.

c). So that I have things to blog when Marion is out of competition.
'Slow news days' as the phrase goes.

R E S P E C T
However, even though this a personal and unofficial fan blog, I am
absolutely conscientous about, and committed to, maintaining content that is
respectful and careful in tone - after all I am a fan. I
love the Bartoli style and personality. I hold a protective allegiance
to the way of Marion and her father, against experts who show
ambivalance about the Bartoli way. So, respect is a'priori.

Bartoli Is da bomb innit.

PS. If you got any thoughts on this, then feel free to comment.

Sumting Random.

I just just like this pic. Venus is fun Here sporting traditional
Korean costume.

Taken last week at the final of the Hansol Open in Seoul where Venus
was victorious over Maria Kirilenko. (..sowi Jim)

(Edited 9am 10/03/07)

In a match that went from the sublime to the rediculous, Marion ended up holding the short straw by the end. This was a tennis tug of war that has left Marion's hopes of qualifying for YEC, hanging by a thread.

FIRST SET
Marion started in imperious form breaking Radwanska in the first game, and holding for a 2-0 lead. She Broke again, and then again. Closing out the set with a love service game.

Marion's first set was near flawless, winning 100% of the points when her first serve was in.. Which almost without exception it was.

SECOND SET
Both players held their opening service games 1-1.

The third game went to deuce an epic SEVEN times. Radwanska's aces couldnt prevent the inevitable break for Marion. At this point you couldnt have got a price on a Radwanska comeback. But...

Radwanska broke back strongly to Love for 2-2, and held for 3-2.

At this point Marion's confidence seemed to slip as she served up consecutive double faults. Handing Radwanska the break to love for 4-2. The tide was turning.

Radwanska then held from Love-40 down for 5-2, and broke to take the 2nd set 6-2.

THIRD SET
A hold, and 3 winners in a row gave Radwanska the break for 2-0 in the final set.

The next game must be something of a record in professional tennis... 15 DEUCES!! Let me repeat... fifteen times this game went to deuce! The match now becoming a tennis equivalent of The Illiad. Marion won the battle, eventually holding on her 11th game point. Could she now come back to win the war in 3 sets, from 3-1 down in the third?

Marion earned 4 break back points in the next game, but couldnt convert. Failure to convert break points becoming Marion's achilles heel today. Radwanska held for 4-1.

This was Marion's last stand in the match. Another break and Radwanska hold finished the match. Marion exits in the 1st Round.

ENIGMA
It's hard to make sense of a result like this. To lose a set 6-0 is one of the ignomonies of the game that a player doesnt want to endure - a 'bagel' as it's known. A dent to Radwanska's professional pride.

How then did Marion lose the match after serving up a bagel in the first set? It's like what Marion did to Justine Henin at Wimbledon, only in reverse.

Apparently Marion at times abandoned running for the ball as the match went on.. Partly explaining clusters of Radwanska winners.

Perhaps a residual injury flared up.... Or perhaps it was just the toll of a long hard season competing in more tournaments then any other player in the top 100.... Or maybe it's just the enigma that is Marion Bartoli. Some players are inconsistent. Marion is downright erratic lol.

If I find any news about what happened yesterday, I'll blog it.

YEC ISNT THE BE ALL..
Marion's next scheduled event is the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. A good showing in this Teir 1 event is essential if Marion is to garner enough points to win a place in The WTA Sony Ericsson Championship next month.

Personally I dont care about the YEC, so much as Marion's health and fitness. Yes it would be great to see her at that elite event. It gives fans something to cheer about and blog about! But in truth, her wellbeing is the most important thing of all.

It's Marion's prerogative. I trust she will make the right decisions about the remainder of this season. Her commitment is not to the tour, or fans, but to her own condition as an athlete - From this, all things flow.

Besides, the YEC may very well be a prestigious and lucrative event, but it isnt a grand slam. Marion has competed in the four grand slams of 2008, reaching new heights in all of them. This will be the lasting story of her season - the slams - Wimbledon - not defeats to Vania King or Agneiska Radwanska in tier 2 and 3 events, or even possibly playing in the YEC.

It's the slams stoopid.

Happy Birthday To Marion! May this 23rd year bring more triumphs and success!

Thanks for the uniquely special tennis and fun spirit.. There is no
one like Marion on the tour!

STUTTGART
This afternoon Marion plays Agnieska Radwanska. Good Luck Marion!