Background and career
Marion Bartoli (French: [maʁjɔ̃ baʁtɔli]; born 2 October 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. Bartoli won the 2013 Wimbledon Championships singles title, after previously being runner-up in 2007, and was a semifinalist at the 2011 French Open. She also won seven singles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour. Bartoli was known for her unorthodox style of play, using both hands on her forehand and backhand. On 30 January 2012, she reached a career-high ranking of world No. 7; she returned to this ranking on 8 July 2013, after triumphing at Wimbledon. Bartoli reached the quarterfinals at each of the four majors. Her win at Wimbledon made her only the sixth player in the Open Era to win the title without losing a set. She is also one of only three players to have played at both the WTA Tour Championships and the WTA Tournament of Champions (later renamed the WTA Elite Trophy) in the same year (2011); the other two being Kiki Bertens and Sofia Kenin.
Marion Bartoli was born on 2 October 1984 in Le Puy-en-Velay, Haute-Loire. She is of Corsican descent; her family is from Palneca, Corse-du-Sud. Bartoli was introduced to tennis by her father, Walter, when she was six years old and often trained on small, icy courts or in cramped indoor spaces, shaping her aggressive style. Her father used creative drills to improve her coordination and kept her agile. She travelled to tournaments with him, doing homework on the road. She turned professional by early 2000 and would remain on the pro tour until late 2013. In December 2019, Bartoli married Belgian football player Yahya Boumediene. Their daughter was born a year later.
Bartoli started entering tournaments regularly at the age of 16. After a few aborted starts in 1999 and 2000, she played in the $10,000 clay events in the spring of 2001. Winning two tournaments back to back in May (in Hatfield and Torino) ensured that she would be given a wildcard into her first Grand Slam, the French Open, where she lost to Catalina Castaño in the first round. Bartoli also won another tournament in Koksijde, Belgium. In 2002, she received a wildcard into the Australian Open. She lost to Tina Pisnik in three sets. She then won her fourth ITF title in Columbus, Ohio. She followed that with a first-round exit at the French Open, losing in three sets to Ai Sugiyama. In the US Open where she qualified, she defeated Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, which was Bartoli's first win over a player in the top 100. She followed that with a win over Rossana de los Ríos, before losing to fourth seed Lindsay Davenport.
Bartoli began 2003 by coming through the qualifying draw in the Canberra International to reach her first WTA Tour semifinal, where she lost to Francesca Schiavone. At the Australian Open where she earned her place in a major through her ranking for the first time, she lost to 11th seed Magdalena Maleeva in the first round. She qualified for Key Biscayne and made it to the quarterfinals, after Lindsay Davenport retired in their fourth-round match due to injury. In the quarterfinal, she lost to Serena Williams. In the Internationaux de Strasbourg, Bartoli reached the quarterfinals where she lost to Vera Zvonareva. At the French Open, she earned another victory over Rossana de los Ríos, but lost to Jennifer Capriati in the second round. At her first Wimbledon, she drew ninth seed Daniela Hantuchová in the first round, and lost. At the San Diego Open, Bartoli defeated her first top-20 player, Meghann Shaughnessy, before losing to Kim Clijsters in the third round. At the US Open she lost to Hantuchová in the first round. But in doubles, she reached her first and only semifinal of doubles at Grand Slams. At the end of the year, she reached the quarterfinals of Bell Challenge, losing to Milagros Sequera.
Bartoli began the season by getting to her first WTA semifinal in the season-opener in Auckland. She then got to the second round of the Australian Open for the first time, losing to 22nd-seeded Patty Schnyder. In February Bartoli played at the Hyderabad Open, where she defeated Ankita Bhambri, Galina Fokina, and Mervana Jugić-Salkić to reach the semifinals, before losing to eventual champion Nicole Pratt. This performance briefly made her a top-50 player. Bartoli refound her doubles form of late 2003. Partnering compatriot Émilie Loit, she reached the semifinals of Acapulco, the quarterfinals of Indian Wells, and then Bartoli won her first WTA doubles title in Casablanca. After a forgettable singles clay-court season (culminating in her second loss to Sugiyama at her native Grand Slam event), she climbed back up the rankings by reaching the third round of Wimbledon (losing to Sugiyama for the second successive Grand Slam). She also got to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in doubles, partnering Loit for the second successive Grand Slam (they had failed to get beyond the second round of the French Open). Bartoli got to her third singles semifinal of the year in Cincinnati, before pulling out of her match with Lindsay Davenport with a blister on her right hand. She reached the second round of the US Open, despite being drawn against 32nd-seeded Meghann Shaughnessy in the first round. She lost to Russian Vera Dushevina in the second round. In the absence of Amélie Mauresmo and Mary Pierce due to injuries, Bartoli received her debut Fed Cup call-up for France's semifinals against Spain. She was teamed with Loit again and helped complete a 5–0 whitewash of the Spanish team. In the final against Russia, Bartoli's and Loit's doubles match against Myskina and Vera Zvonareva was the decisive rubber. The Russian pair won, earning the Fed Cup for Russia for the first time. As a result, Bartoli's team leader Guy Forget resigned, and she was not chosen by the new team leader Georges Goven to play in 2005. She ended 2004 ranked world No. 41, having gone 30–24 over the year. Her hard-court record was 23–13, with clay going 4–7, grass 3–3, and carpet 0–1.
After a promising start (semifinals in Auckland and quarterfinals in Canberra), which took her to world No. 32 and winning the second doubles tournament of her career in Pattaya City, injury disrupted the second quarter of 2005. The only match Bartoli played in the clay-court season was her straight-sets first-round loss to Shahar Pe'er at the French Open (where she was seeded for the first time, 28th). Her quarterfinal run at Eastbourne (where she had to retire hurt) led her to a career-high ranking of No. 27 at the start of Wimbledon, where she lost to Jill Craybas in the second round. Highlights of the year were reaching the third round of the US Open for the second time (losing to Sania Mirza) and making her second WTA semifinal of the year (and fifth of her career) in Québec. Her end-of-season statistics were 35–26, albeit padded by a victory in a satellite tournament in Doha at the end of the year. She went 30–21 on hard courts, 0–1 on clay, 3–3 on grass, and 2–1 on carpet. She was now ranked world No. 40.
