M. Bartoli bt M. Rybarikova 6-4 6-4

Commonwealth Bank Tournament Of Champions
Nusa Dua, Bali
GROUP STAGE

No Dilli Dallying By Bartoli in Bali

Indoor courts can have the same variables as their outdoor equivalents, some are carpet, some are hard, some even clay following this year’s innovation at Stuttgart. Yet even among the hard indoor variety there is a multiplicity of variables in terms of speed, movement, and bounce.

One of the blog's astute visitors commented that the speed of the indoor court will be a benefit to Marion in this tournament, and if the outcome of this result is anything to go by, then this observation is right on the ball. Yet it seems even for Marion Bartoli, a veritable connoisseur of fast hard court tennis, still had to hit the ground running today. "The conditions were pretty difficult because the court is very fast and it’s not easy to get used to it." She said after the match "There is only the one court and we are 12 players so you can’t get a lot of time to practise on it. And it’s the end of the year and everyone is tired so it’s not easy."

Winning the first eight points of the match to rush into a 2-0 lead, Marion's opponent quickly levelled the score at 2-2. The tournament’s top ranking player immediately seized the initiative again for a 4-2 lead. Facing little challenge in point scoring terms, Marion retained a one break lead and served the set out confidently, 6-4.

As the match progressed, the talented young Slovakian really began to find her feet, and nothing separated either player for most of the set, but the French number 1 almost shot herself in the foot with consecutive double faults in the 7th game - she survived.

Marion's opponent served up some big shots in the next game, with aces and a double fault. Yet after returning to deuce three times, Rybarikova's battle royale ended in a surrender of a break at a highly critical juncture of the match. 5-4

The Monterrey and Stanford titleholder made no mistake as she wrapped up the contest with her first match point, winning the final game to 30 for a 6-4 6-4 scoreline.

"I’m really happy to win in two sets. I was quite happy with the level of the game. But I’m really pleased to be part of this tournament. It’s a great one to finish the year and I will really try my best to finish well."

A great pledge and a great result today from Marion. Magdalena Rybarikova has offered stiff and powerful resistance to Marion throughout their four contests, so this win can only help keep Marion's confidence high.

One thing we have learned from the results on day 1 of the Commonwealth Bank Tournament Of Champions is the positive statement made about the competitive depth of women's tennis; Firstly, there was an upset with Marion's compatriot Aravane Rezai beating the much fancied Sabine Lisicki. Then Kimiko Date-Krumm can consider herself a little agrieved at losing the first set in a tie break (5) against the ascendant Belgian, Yanina Wickmayer. The Belgian then broke away at 3-3 in the 2nd set, but not before the much admired veteran gave the girl less than half her age something to think about. Lastly Agnes Szavay took another high flying filly Sam Stosur to three sets before the Aussie finally put the Hungie away, and so wrap up the evening’s entertainment at the Bali convention center.

Last week yours truly clumsily drew some arbitrary line between the top players in Bali and the others. But in actual fact the intrinsic set up of this tournament distinguishes it from all other tournaments except Doha YEC. The concept of this tournament forms a convincing showcase of all that's good and all that's promising in women's tennis today. That's why this tournament is arranged as a round robin mini league, instead of a pyramid model, ie; with one win and your through, or one loss and your eliminated.

Every player in Bali this week has a tangible opportunity to take home another trophy to add to the one or more they have each won this season already. This event seems to be shaping up as nice addition to the tour calendar.

Tomorrow's group match sees Peer take on Rybarikova, and Marion play next on Friday

Don't forget to check the twitter feed. Lots of interesting stuff coming through the wires today., and chack out the tournament website who have put up another gallery of excellent photos.

Match Statistics