Very sad to read this news regarding Marion. Very unexpected, very spontaneous, very different, very melodramatic, very emotional, very French in some ways.........all a bit......Marion Bartoli!!! Which is precisely why she was and is a breath of fresh air for the sport.

She was giving interview after interview post-Wimbledon saying how much she loved the game, that it was her passion, and that she had many more goals in the sport. Then this.

I'm sure she has trained much less than normal in the last month, enjoyed herself much more than normal in terms of interviews, parties, dinners and found it hard to maintain her motivation. This is all completely normal, especially after a long career where a Wimbledon title looked less and less likely as the years passed by. It should also be noted that she was "released" from the fairly tight grip of her father earlier in 2013, hence her return to the FFT fold, her new coaching set up with Amelie Mauresmo and others, and her increased socialising with other players, the press, fans, etc........she has come across as a much happier person.......

One of the strange things she said overnight was that tennis was good, but that life as a woman, a wife and a mother was much more exciting.......I imagine, given the way her life was regimented and controlled by her dad until recently (she was isolated from the non-tennis world and even the French tennis world), that she has led a rather cloistered life with regard to socialising, life off the court and the opposite sex in general........it wouldn't surprise me that a lot of the classic "growing-up and getting out there" things that girls go through in their teens and early twenties may have hit her belatedly this year, especially after her Wimbledon triumph, where everyone will be wanting a piece of her, showering compliments left, right and centre. I've seen it lots of times before, where women (and men) who start late, really overdo it on the catching up stakes, as they rationalise that they have somehow "missed out" - well they certainly enjoy themselves a lot anyway!

Just have a hunch the above may be a factor, which might explain why tennis might not be the be all and end all for her right now. The other French players certainly were all completely shocked, so its absolutely NOT something that had been discussed previously.

I think she may be back sooner than we think......I certainly hope so.

Bravo Marion!

BTW Coup Droit, just saw some nasty French tweet saying "Marion,  tu vas devenir une patate maintenent". Trolls!

Korriban, you're right, the French trolls are truly French trolls - nasty little blighters . . .

But the French interviewers were ten times worse, because they're supposed to know better, and be professionals, and be a voice for the public.

I have just listened to Marions' full ten minute interview for French Europsort and am spitting !!!

The male interviewer spends half his time (very politely) bullying her, not believing her when she says she won't change her mind, accusing her of making a hasty decision, saying she should have stuck it out ill then end of the year, saying that so many players now play until they're over 30, what';s she thinking of in quitting so soon . . . etc.etc.
And the other half of his time trying to make a huge thing about Marion's father and when precisely she'd told him and whether he'd been shocked and furious - and again refusing to believe her and asking the same question five times, each time a bit nastier.

(Marion is charming (although increasingly irritated), sticking to a reasonably simple script - my body is worn out, I've had too many injuries this year, I'm 28, won Wimbledon, can't go on, time to do other things, don;t care how long others play, can only act on my own behalf, my father chose to quit being my coach because he knew it was necessary and it was his hardest decision and he is the closest person in my life).

Frankly, come back John Inverdale (I might even bend so far as to say come back John Lloyd and Andrew Castle!!!) - such a lack of respect and basic politeness from the French guy - horrible.