This quite colorful match report from France's Sport 24 caught my eye the other day..

At 100% Marion Bartoli did not happen, but at 20 or 30%, it was only little chance to reverse a particularly bad defeat against Vera Zvonareva. A real pet peeve that Corsica original had so far beaten (Zvonareva) only once in 8 confrontations. And despite her desire to take revenge for the quarter-final of the Australian Open, where the Russian had very curtly dismissed (6-3 6-0), the French number 2 had clearly spent too much power in her two previous marathons.

Against Ai Sugiyama in the 1st round she was close to exit after a big blow hot in the second.. In turn, she still spent 2:46 on the court to dispose of Francesca Schiavone. A praiseworthy self-sacrifice, but eventually show her limitations facing a very realistic Zvonareva.

Thus, taking advantage of the first serve of the anemic Tricolore (44% only), the Russian broke twice, while at the same time she saved seven break points. Consequently, Bartoli was reflected in the strings (2-5), and with the memory of past defeats against Zvonareva no incentive to continue..

Now some of the meaning may be lost in translation as they say.. but we know that anaemic means colorless and flaccid. The article displays a journalese play on words, and not an entirely sympathetic one.. no incentive to continue.. what, a losing battle? All but sniggered and said she chucked it.. And this from a French media source :roll:

But think about it, If Marion missed around a week’s worth of normal training after Melbourne, and then quickly had to regain match fitness and play six sets of tennis within 24 hours on top of it all.. Is it any surprise that her poor paws where bleeding! Marion didn't chuck it at all. And is that her discreetly wiping a way a tear in the aerial photo?

Just as a general observation, I must say there is so much innuendo out there. If one were to react to every little article, and every wynd-up search enquiry, and every crank e-mail, and every inaccurate forum post (I don't even waste my time with that anymore), then it just produces more heat than light.

Think of last year's script; the post Roland Garros press inquisition, Marion furious-imperious after Montreal in August, and then around September-time you may recall Marion's displeasure over the Coronation Cornet affair. The tender-scorn was taking on the world, and we were swept along in a wave of sympathetic indignation. We felt the unfairness. We seen the facts. But the other narratives out there were the ones getting publicity.

With the off season, Marion maybe realised it was a waste of time to bang her pretty head against a brick wall erected by Numpty's (..the artisan Scottish diaspora which I swear didn't emigrate to Appalachia, but France instead, and now work for French tennis!).

The temptation would have been for the Bartoli's to pull up the duvet and insulate themselves from it all, but they did not - Instead Marion knuckled down after her illness and really put her full focus into her tennis, entertaining no negative outside distractions, but keen to mingle and stretch herself on the practice court with respected French tennis people like Guy Forget – (Lost a tight first set against Guy, then tied at 3-3 in the second set before suspension... wow.. what a chick!! even the Williams sisters couldn't keep level with a male pro when they tried.) B)

Marion has got her people at IMG France; Nicolas Lamperin, Regis Brunet, Arnaud Di Pasquale, and also L'Equipe's Alain Deflassieux, to get her message out there when she wants to do so, and she chooses carefully who she wants to speak to and when she wants to speak to them, and what it is she wants to say. She can't control everything that's said out there, but she can counter it by what she does on the court, and her own innate friendliness and good nature off court - which shines through in her Melbourne Blog.

If sometimes the story of women's tennis in France reads like the sisters in Shakespeare’s King Lear, replete with inter-Nicene conflict and rivalry, were one sister get's totally shafted, then Marion's response is to sing from a different hymn sheet altogether - She reminds me of the biblical book of Proverbs - There is this story about a smart woman who calmly and coolly goes about conducting her affairs and delegating her significant business, the wife of noble character, Marion is like that, none of the decadence and spoil, all of the brain, wit, and heart - focused and now getting the results - just please God let her stay healthy - Surely silver ware is only round the corner, surely the memories of four consecutive losses in a final will soon be expunged. She'll do her best.