Coach Walter Bartoli speaking to Alain Deflassieux. Published in Monday's paper edition of L'Equipe.
(English Translation)
"As the results of Marion in Miami and Indian Wells have been catastrophic (catastrophiques), she has played only 2 games in a month, when we know that she is always slow to adapt to the clay, she plays below her true value on this surface, I thought it was more interesting to immediately play matches rather than train for another week before playing Charleston.
I would be lying if I said that Marion appreciated the fact of being there. But we must accept the challenge of going to the coal face. Her first match was very hard, I even thought she was going to swing it* ..... In Ponte Vedra, hard practice in the morning, and matches in the afternoon. The aim is to arrive well prepared for Madrid and Roland Garros."
Thanks to Lighter for transcribing this.
Here’s a (not too serious) take on why Marion has done well – or badly – this season.
Does fiddling around with something help to settle the mind? Some people have worry beads or executive toys or just chew a pencil. Marion has the WTA badge on her tennis shirt and some dodgy Velcro. Twice Marion’s tennis has soared when the badge was threatening to come off. Against Zheng Jie in Moterrey it started working loose towards the end of the first set. Marion was adjusting the badge between every point. But she ran away with the next three games and took the set. After fixing it in the changeover, Marion’s performance dropped and the next few games went with serve in the second set until Marion finally won it 6-4. Earlier in Dubai, the badge was a problem from the start against Sugiyama. Marion blazed through the first set 6-0 trying to keep the badge in place. Finally it fell off while Marion was serving in the second set leading 2-1. She gave the badge to a ballboy and it stayed off for the rest of the match. Marion lost that game and the second set. This was when she had her problems with the heat, wandering in a daze. Typically she responded with a huge gutsy effort to win the third. But it was all a lot easier with that annoying loose badge. Results since Monterrey haven’t been too good – probably she’s sown it on now.