Farewell to Marion Bartoli
Marion Bartoli stunned the tennis sports world last night when she announced that her losing effort yesterday to Simona Halep at Cincinnati was the last match of her professional tennis career. The tennis world is stunned because the 28 years old French National just won her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon just over a month ago.
During the early 1990s a young Monica Seles showed up on the Pro Tennis Circuit employing a most peculiar style of play. She was a left handed player who used both hands on the racket from both wings of the body. And, just over a decade later Marion Bartoli came on the tour with a similarly unorthodox style being a right handed player with both hands on the racket from both wings of the body. While Bartoli’s career tennis successes are not comparable to those of Monica Seles, she did achieve mediocre level successes. She reached two Grand Slam Finals with a 50% success rate. She was a Top 10 caliber player with a career high ranking of #7. She won 8 career titles, including 1 Grand Slam title. She left with a career Singles Win/Loss record of 61.1% (WTA only) and $11,042,914.00 in prize money earned.
Bartoli intimated that injury problems and tennis burnout are among the reasons for her sudden permanent departure from the sport. “My body just can’t do it anymore” Marion Bartoli explained. “I’ve already been through a lot of injuries since the beginning of the year. I’ve been on the tour for so long, and I really pushed through and left it all during Wimbledon. I really felt I gave all the energy I have left in my body,” she added. “I made my dream a reality and it will stay with me forever, but now my body just can’t cope with everything. I have pain everywhere after 45 minutes or an hour of play. I’ve been doing this for so long and body-wise I just can’t do it anymore.”
While Bartoli’s unexpected exit from the sport is sadly the subject of speculations of something sinister on the part of some tennis fans, even a cursory examination of her entire tennis career would reveal that just the sheer volume of her tennis career alone explicates the condition of her body by which she is forced to leave the sport. The volume of Bartoli’s tennis career in relation to the length of time she was on the WTA tour expounds upon her state of burnout.
Marion Bartoli turned pro in the year 2000. She played the ITF (International Tennis Federation) Junior Circuit from 1999 to 2002, plus the 2001 French Open, the 2002 Australian Open, the 2002 French Open, and the 2002 US Open. Her professional career spans a total of 306 tournaments in Singles competition and 85 Doubles tournaments. However, from 2003 when she began to play a full schedule on the tour to the time of retirement yesterday Bartoli participated in a total of 282 main draw tournaments. Yes, 282 tournaments in an 11 years period as follow:
2003 -------------------------- 26 Tournaments
2004 -------------------------- 27
2005 -------------------------- 27
2006 -------------------------- 31
2007 -------------------------- 31
2008 -------------------------- 26
2009 -------------------------- 24
2010 -------------------------- 21
2011 -------------------------- 28
2012 -------------------------- 25
2013 -------------------------- 16
Total 282.
As an aside, Serena Williams is currently on just her 162 professional Singles tournament in Cincinnati. And so, 31 years old Serena with 15 years on the tour is a fresh player compare to Marion Bartoli.
One reason why Bartoli was able to play so many tournaments is because she managed to stay healthy ever so long over the years. Until this year Bartoli did not suffer any major injury setbacks. She played in a total of 47 Grand Slam Singles, including 44 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments going back to the 2002 US Open. Now the injuries were coming frequently and Marion grows impatient and frustrated.
It is published that Marion is very much financially secure, being one of the richest tennis player in the world, thanks to not only her tennis career and the endorsements that came with it, but to her financial investments as a business woman. She is said to be worth about $158M. As such, it is quite understandable that that will enable her to make her retirement decision more easily. Moreover, perhaps Marion is ready to start a family of her own. For whatever reason though I say thanks to Marion Bartoli for the entertainment she gave us in Tennis fandom over the years. Farewell!
laj.
It's okay not to like players and it's okay to voice it too.
