2009 Wimbledon Championships Round 2

The area where I live has all the picture postcard charm you expect when you think of Scotland; the wilderness, the ever changing skies, the long sandy beach, the castle, and the funny little houses that embody all that is homely, stable, long term, and Olde.

Marion said that when she comes to Wimbledon she smiles, and I know I may get lynched by my fellow Scots for saying this, but is there really any other place to be on a midsummers day than out on Henman Hill, watching the tennis, while the city of London gently strokes catharsis on your left cheek? If Tendaberry is New York, Aorangi is London.

"It's crazy because at Wimbledon I do not panic, it's not like at Roland Garros," Marion said lastnight. J'concur.  

Lastnight  the chilled out storm did it again, the tornado which shattered the pleasant evening calm over at court 3. If you don?t believe me just ask tennis bell-weather Sophie Dorgan. On Monday evening French tennis journalist Dorgan forecast the imminent arrival of Tornado-Bartoli...

Timea Bacsinszky, a clearly gifted young tennis player from Switzerland, was simply captive to the irresistible force of the storm as it gathered pace. And oh what a beautiful tempest it is!

Yet for the bulk of the first set teenager Bacsinszky boldly held her own against her marquee opponent, she produced some lovely winners into the corner, and expert volleys.  She was serving well, and one wondered if it was really possible to sustain that level of tennis for the duration of a whole match.

It would be an exaggeration to say the storm was in the doldrums over the first seven games of the match, but being down 5-2 in a grand slam set of tennis demands not only ability to recover the situation, but professionalism, and above all fight.

An outward sign of that fight was a fist-pump after every good point, and some discreet fist shaking as she prepared to serve. It got the adrenalin going and contained just the right level of menace, throttle, and thrust.

When Anne Keothavong played Marion last year, she fist pumped her way to a three set defeat from 4-1 up in the final set. To which Matthew Cronin retorted wonderfully.. "it's not over until the last rebel yell." 

Then there's the legendary Ana Ivanovic fist pump, which in my eyes has a bit of the smiling extrovert about it, it's a cocky little number.. yet lacks the decisiveness of the Bartoli fist pump. The Bartoli fist pump has the last word, decisive, conclusive, end of.

(But of course that's my biased opinion) :)

Soon Marion's play was revolving in harmony with the piston fisting - more aggression, a few more take risks from 5-2 down, applying the pressure, see if her opponent would crack. She was stepping well inside the baseline not only on second serve, but on first serve too.

One of her super-early returns went straight into the net. Yet for every one step back, Marion took two steps forward.

There was one particularly moral boosting point at the end of the first set. Bacsinszky tried a short ball again thinking it would catch Marion off guard, but the new slim-line Bartoli express just raced to the ball and won the point.

This is only stage two of seven required to win a grand slam, but so far Marion has shown an impressive and exciting level of play; quality aggressive tennis and the will to win when down. She began with a 6-0 6-0 win in round 1, and by the end of round 2 a good player was out-hit, out-classed, and out of Wimbledon.

With Gisela Dulko eliminating Maria Sharapova today at Wimbledon, the same Argentine player Marion won handsomely over at Eastbourne, there is a weighty body of evidence to show that Marion is one of the substantial figures on grass.

Marion will play Francesca Schiavone in Friday's third round. Marion beat the Italian in Dubai in February. Fighting back to win in three sets despite illness.

Updated 1:00 Thu 25 June 2009