Marion Bartoli won the mouthwatering match of the Selesian qualifiers
with María Antonia Sánchez Lorenzo 6-2 7-5. It's nice to see that the
18-year-old is on her way up, and I hope one day to see her play!

I expected the fourth round to be the end of the road for Marion, but
she beat Lindsay Davenport without losing a game! Marion won the first
set 6-0, then Davenport retired due to a strained right hamstring.
It's always sad when a match ends in retirement, but Marion's great
tournament continues (she's now won two matches in qualifying and four
in the main draw).

Photo of Bartoli and Davenport:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030324/241/3m1ac.html


Marion plays top seed Serena Williams in the quarter-finals today.
Here's the standard report that's doing the rounds on the Internet:
>>>
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (March 24, 2003 9:18 p.m. EST) - In charming
fractured English, 18-year-old Marion Bartoli neatly summed up the
challenge of playing against Serena Williams.

"She win everybody," Bartoli said.

That's why the path to a title at the Nasdaq-100 Open is about to
become a whole lot tougher for Bartoli, who has led a charmed life
since arriving at Key Biscayne.

After winning two qualifying matches, Bartoli drew a wild-card
entrant, a lucky loser and a qualifier in the first three rounds - and
beat them all. She won again Monday when No. 7-seeded Lindsay
Davenport strained her right hamstring in the second game and was
forced to retire after losing the first set 6-0.

That gave Bartoli a berth in the quarterfinals Tuesday against
defending champion Williams, who improved to 14-0 this year by beating
Iroda Tulyaganova 6-0, 6-4.

"It's very exciting," said Bartoli, who hails from the small town of
Retournac in central France. "Nothing to lose, just to enjoy to play
against the No. 1 in the world."

As if to underscore the challenge she faces, the WTA Tour honored
Williams in a stadium court ceremony Monday as its player of the year
for 2002.

"Always some people say, 'Serena Williams is unbelievable. She plays
so well,'" Bartoli said. "But I'm going to see what is it really to
play against No. 1."

Bartoli has enjoyed success before at Key Biscayne, where she won the
Orange Bowl 16-and-under title in 2000 and reached the 18-and-under
semifinals in 2001. At the Nasdaq she has yet to play a full match
against anyone ranked in the top 90, but her showing will vault her
into the high 60s next week's rankings, a career best.

Monday's match wasn't much of a test. Davenport said she first hurt
her hamstring Sunday and aggravated the injury in the early going
against Bartoli.

"She was playing well," Davenport said. "But I didn't feel like I
could do that much to combat it."

Bartoli employs an unorthodox playing style, hitting with two hands
off both sides and boldly standing well inside the baseline to receive
serve. She might be wise to wear a protective mask against Williams'
120-mph delivery.

Williams has followed Bartoli's climb in the rankings, in part because
their fathers are friendly. Walter Bartoli, a doctor, first met
Richard Williams at a tournament in Paris last year.

"I've seen her play a lot, actually," Serena Williams said. "I like to
watch the young girls play. She's young, tenacious, enthusiastic - the
way I used to be."

Williams smiled as she spoke, amused by her role as a wily veteran at
the age of 21.
<<<

--
Andrew Broad
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/seles/
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/tennis/seles/selesians.html