Week 26/27 - Wimbledon women's main draw - grass

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Week 26/27 - Wimbledon women's main draw - grass

briteny · Intermediate Club Player

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Nice career high for Laura, but it will be tough to improve on as she starts defending a lot of points. If she can be around this career high at the end of the year it will be a great effort.

So far whenever Laura has made the second week of a Grand Slam, Andy has gone on to win the event - so a few more runs like last week would be nice biggrin

Jan · Hall of fame

well done Laura!

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Yes well done. Sadly Heather's down to 68 this week, but I'm sure she'll pick it up again as she gets well over her glandular fever.

philwrig · Hall of fame

By the way I thought I'd say huge congrats to Bartoli who really showed what a great player and personality she has over the weekend. I probably would have preferred Lisicki to have won, but financially and after seeing/hearing Bartoli's response after I'm not too upset that Lisicki lost, she'll have plenty more opportunities in the future.

Spectator · All-time great

Agreed! Class act all around. Great play, and a gracious, honest, intelligent, funny person to boot.

PaulM · Tennis legend

Here here Spectator. She's so endearing with all her quirks and is the epitomy of someone who has sacrificed and worked as hard as possible to be the best they can be.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Yes, that's a nice comment. And the French press in general have been elated and very upbeat (as of course they should be - everyone likes to print good news).

But the French public in general (especially as witnessed by the tennis forums) are, basically, mean and nasty.

I was really interested to see what people thought here (and didn't post anything) and I think it's a huge credit to this forum that there have been so many positive, complimentary comments.

It's no secret that she's no pin-up beauty and that her style of tennis is not classically elegant. But she has so many positive qualities, as noted by many above.

But the French don't really see it that way. There have been years of abuse over her looks, her physique and her tennis - very pointed and nasty.

And, even ignoring that, the main tennis forums now have a lot of posts from people saying, effectively, it was the "easiest Grand Slam draw ever", that it was "like winning a WTA 250", that the ladies Wimbly draw was the "poor man's GS", that Marion "just got lucky" and managed to take advantage of "very favourable circumstances", that that fact that she has no athletic physique or all-round game and still won obviously shows how "poor" Wimbly must have been. One ends by saying:

Seul le tournoi masculin a un vrai vainqueur digne de ce nom

(Only the men's side has a true Wimbledon champion worthy of that title).

And this if from the FRENCH !

So thanks for the compliments re Andy but, honestly, mesdames et messieurs, a few nice words about your own winner wouldn't go amiss . . .

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Thursday 11th of July 2013 07:21:35 AM

Spectator · All-time great

So sad, CD, to hear about the negativity around Bartoli. Not just France (or the odd comment in this country), I fear, either. Here's how Jonathan Wertheim dealt with US-based comments similar to the ones you cite. Within the passage as a whole, I particularly like (overlooking the American context - I think we all get the idea):

Look, we like certain players more than others. Certain tournaments provide more enjoyment than others. But the degree of grief Bartoli has caught since winning the title is really unsettling. Tony didn't suggest this, but too often that grief comes with the undercurrent of the high school bully picking on the kid on the social margins. That the head of the model boat club or the third flute in the band won Homecoming Queen is not going over well with the popular crowd.

Read More: sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/news/20130710/mailbag-wimbledon-marion-bartoli-andy-murray/

-- Edited by Spectator on Thursday 11th of July 2013 07:51:59 AM

korriban · Challenger level

I just don't get this reaction to Bartoli.

1. IMO she's actually good looking. Thin, no. Athletic, no. Blonde, definitely no. Tall, no. Different to all the other Identikit female tennis players, yes. She looked glamorous at the Wimbledon Ball, not my taste perhaps, but she would certainly have turned heads. And she looked fantastic at Nole's Foundation Event on Monday evening. Exhibit A!!!

2. She played absolutely superbly all the way through Wimbledon. Straight set victories against all her opponents, with complete thrashings of Stephens, Flipkens and Lisicki from the QF onwards. In other words she was getting stronger and stronger. She beat every player she faced resoundingly.....it's hardly her fault that the highest seed she played was only 15. On the form she showed, arguably she would have beaten most of the higher ranked players as well anyway.

3. Her style of play is high octane, high risk, attacking tennis. Flat shots, taken unbelievably early with huge power and accuracy. Two handers on both sides. Superb lobs thrown in to completely flummox Flipkens. One of the best returners in the women's game. Is her gamestyle different from the Identikit Azarenka, Sharapova baseline scream and pound approach that all the Eastern European Bollettieri clones seem to adopt. Yes, and thank God for that!

4. Her personality and quirkiness on and off the court is really quite indearing. And the history of working with her Dad, his strange methods, the difficulties this created with the FFT, and the break-up and reconciliation, and her victory at Wimbledon after 47 GS tournaments is a brilliant story. In fact, in some ways it's a little bit like Graeme Obree, the mad Scottish cyclist who invented his own bikes and riding styles to smash world records and win World titles, bucking the established approaches to cycling, the big bike manufacturers, and the UCI......that was made into a film......and I think this would be an interesting film too.

5. If sport were predictable, noone would bother to watch it. It's tournaments like this that make everything worthwhile, and give real hope to everyone out there that it IS possible to go all the way, even against the established superstars! A few years back Denmark won the football Euros after having failed to qualify for the finals (they replaced Serbia/Yugoslavia, who were kicked out) playing lights out stylish football. A bunch of untalented no-hopers at Wimbledon FC assembled for 50p beat the mightly Liverpool in the FA Cup final.......even Sue Barker's win at the French Open relied on a surreal run of good luck as her side of the draw literally fell to pieces: far easier than Marion's draw! Thank God that these things happen in sport.

-- Edited by korriban on Thursday 11th of July 2013 08:31:56 AM

Spectator · All-time great

Thought this comment from Mr Tsonga was lovely:

Q: What did you think about Marion Bartoli's victory at Wimbledon?

A: It's super! It's great for her, for women's tennis and for French tennis. For us, the French men's and women's players, it gives us lots of hope. She's been out there battling for more than 10 years to get a Grand Slam title. For me, it's only five years that I've been on the tour. So she has a career that's twice as long as mine. But she's always worked hard to reach her goal. She sets me a [good] example - it's up to me to imitate it!

www.ladepeche.fr/article/2013/07/09/1667691-jo-wilfried-tsonga-incertain-pour-l-us-open.html [quick translation, and I'm not a translator ... so SC or others feel free to correct!]

On the downside, for those of us who enjoy watching Mr Tsonga play, he's not sure about the timing of his recovery from injury (though on the upside, he doesn't seem to think it's a terribly serious one long term)

chavkev · Intermediate Club Player

I think Bartoli is a great story and should give some of the other players hope. Tsonga is such a classy guy, it is a shame the French booed him after the semis against Ferrer this year.

He did not even say anything about it. That was far more classy than I would have been.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

That's a great photo - never seen that one.

And it might silence a few critics because one of the main complaints (in SO true French style) is not so much that she is (arguably) a little 'plain' (which can be forgiven by the French because God gives you what God gives you) but - FAR worse - is that she often doesn't 'make an effort'.
This is really a crime. All women are obliged from birth, by social contract, to never leave the house unless coiffed and groomed. (I read recently that French girls begin to use anti-ageing cream at the age, on average, of 14 !!!!).
Unfortunately, the other hangable offence is to have a few extra kilos (because God didn;t give you those, that's just a lack of self-control, and if you really can't stay off the croissants then do something about it - like take up smoking).
Marion gets it in the neck for that. As did Mary Pierce . . .

I've seen Marion be a grumpy old so-and-so - she once stomped off a court, refusing to sign any kids' autographs etc. because she was in a mood. She's no angel. But this is her moment and it does seem really small-minded of many (NOT those on this forum) to begrudge her her victory and keep making snide remarks. Especially when it's your own countrymen . . .

TomTraubert · Futures level

love marion.
don't say this to be controversial but i find her far more beautiful than sharapova inside and out (though Masha is much more likable when she speaks in russian - her character changes)
marion has je ne sai quoi (that right?) and though she is not in the physical shape that top athletes seem to require these days, she is still quick around the court and runs most things down and beats lots of players whos physiques are honed to apparent perfection. So who cares marion was the winner and always in or around top 10 - someone like hlavackova is in great shape but cant make top 50

Bartoli is also a real person - most on tour are very superficial and not terribly interesting though they are most often pretty pleasant, just a little dull
marion though can always be found curled up in a corner somewhere reading a book - a real book, classic lit or technical books not celeb auto biogs
I'm also told that you can talk to MArion about almost any subject and she is informed on it - she is interesting to talk to on a wide range of topics - which I can't say ive herd about many others on tour

Also have the French forgotten about suzanne lenglen? their great female tennis star - she was hardly a looker even by the taste of the day!!!