Commonwealth Bank Tournament Of Champions
Bali International Convention Center
Nusa Dua, Bali
GROUP STAGE
Following her match on Wednesday Marion told reporters that the court inside Bali convention center was fast and that it required that she make some ad hoc adjustments. Nevertheless, going by results so far it's clear that Marion has taken to this surface like a duck to water, and left her group stage opponents looking like lame duck's 
Shahar Peer is out, and Marion Bartoli has qualified for the semi final.
On paper the case history of this Franco-Israeli contest hasn't made easy reading for those with a Bartoli bias; the head to head stood at 1-6. But no sooner have we digested that brick when we consider the head to head against Vera Zvonareva was every bit as unpromising as the one held against Peer. Last month Marion demonstrated that fundamentally her level of play is good just now and that she is possessed with an unrelenting will to win - a lady determined to show that she is a highly credible force at the top of women's tennis. She proved it by the way she came back to beat the Top 10 ranking Russian.
As for today's match, the first break came midway through the first set in Marion's favor. Yet with all due respect to the opposition, Marion always seemed the in-control player, frequently earning break points, and swatting away the slightest wiff of threat.
5-3 up, Marion won the opening set in style with a break to love. There-after Marion was like an extra in a Mad Max movie as she went on the rampage. Of course 'we don't want another hero..' one's enough. And Peer? Left looking as hapless as, well, Peer Gynt!
The service stats today where really solid from Marion, and when it came to returning first and second serves, the number 1 French was killing it. With such a fast court Peer simply wasn't getting the time on the ball or an opportunity to hypnotise another unfortunate victim with a soporific shot-fest. Peer, dependant on percentage, just wasn't getting the stats today, with less than 50% of first serves in.
Learning From The Past
Alluding to a painful reverse in Miami this year, Marion explained, "I had to stay focused until the very end of the match. I lost too many matches in three sets against Shahar, where I led by a set and with break or double-break in the second set, and where she came from nowhere to beat me." "My groundstrokes were really strong and deep and I was not doing a lot of mistakes from the baseline, and I think my power was pretty high so I was putting a lot of pressure on her. I think it helps when you hit a lot of winners and few mistakes, usually you win the match."
To be fair to Peer, her recent reverse against Mirza in Osaka, and this one today, may be symptomatic of the tiredness and fatigue felt by players at this stage of the season. It's the same for everyone though. Overall the Israeli star can take encouragement from a great performance over the second half of this year. She's on the rise again.
Redolent of that summer 2 years ago, Marion's first win in a tournament over her old pal since Wimbledon 2007 has by happy coincidence drawn her towards the cusp of the top 10 once again. Two more wins and its job done. She'll do her best - that's her covenant!
Talkin' Up The Tennis
In a week of challenging headlines and negative publicity surrounding the sport of tennis, it is all too tempting to yield to the leaven of cynicism. But you know, whoever wins the title this weekend will have a remarkable cynicism-busting story to tell, especially true of Marion and Kimiko Date. There are a lot of good people working very hard to try to make tennis a viable, sustainable, vital, and integral fabric of our global sporting culture, or if that sounds a bit too high fluting; simply set a positive example in life as a role-model. A few days ago Kimiko said, “I want to show to the tsunami and earthquake victims here that it's never too late to restart your life, just like what I've done.” To some that might sound like pretentious cods wallop, but I don' think so - at 39 years old and a former world number 4, Kimiko Date has nothing to prove to anyone. She didn't have to do this. Her partner is a racing driver, and wants not for cash. She didn't have to expose herself to potential ridicule by coming back or tarnish her legacy. But she has done so for the simple love of the sport and also to give something back to it. She is a great role model and her story can inspire and catalyse people. Just as Marion's story has done. What Marion, Kimiko, and all the other hero's do has altruistic and motivational spin-offs, which sometimes gets ignored by the press clamor for the latest manky drama, and suppressed by the media hyperbole that follows.
Of course, It would be unfair and plain daft to attribute all ills to the media, because there is light and shade in that scene just as there is in all walks of life. My appeal as a fan is simply that we don't forget the good stuff about tennis, especially women's tennis. It has a lot to offer and a lot of good going for it. So chin up, keep smiling, talk up the sport.
Just indulge me a bit more sugary Eurovosion.... As the Slide song goes.. Don’t forget to look ahead.. See what you will find..
*The scoreboard stopped working just before this.
Match Statistics
| Player | M Bartoli FRA | S Peer ISR |
| Aces | 1 | 1 |
| Double Faults | 2 | 2 |
| 1st Serve % | 67% | 49% |
| 1st Serve Pts Won | 72% | 58% |
| 2nd Serve Pts Won | 69% | 41% |
| Break Points Saved | 2/2 | 5/9 |
| Service Games Played | 8 | 9 |
| 1st Serve Return Pts Won | 42% | 28% |
| 2nd Serve Return Pts Won | 59% | 31% |
| Break Points Won | 4/9 | 0/2 |
| Return Games Played | 9 | 8 |
| Total Service Pts Won | 71% | 49% |
| Total Return Pts Won | 51% | 29% |
| Total Pts Win | 60% | 40% |
| Duration | 1hr 16mins 14secs | |
| Fan Blog Moodset |   |
|
