2011 BNP Paribas Open: Women’s Tennis Association seeds Part VIII
The 2011 BNP Paribas Open will begin this week, with a total of 96 players. 32 of these players are seeded, and this series provides a short analysis of their previous performances at the tournament and their current positions.
World Number 17 Marion Bartoli
French tennis player and World Number 17 Marion Bartoli is seeded fifteenth at the Indian Wells tournament this year. She has participated in the event for the past two years consecutively, although her 2009 appearance was a great
disappointment. Bartoli suffered defeat at the hands of Shahar Pe’er in the second round of the tournament, being unable to perform due to a viral bug she had caught on tour.
However, she managed to redeem herself on the hard courts of California in 2010, when she was seeded eleventh then. She received a bye into the second round to defeat Polona Hercog in straight sets to make it to the next round.
Here, she managed to oust American tennis pro Jill Craybas in straight sets with a bagel before being undone by fifth seed and World Number 8 Agnieszka Radwanska. This is the fifth consecutive time that the Polish pro has defeated Bartoli, as well as the tenth
straight set that Radwanska has managed to take from her opponent. Bartoli’s ranking, however, did not suffer from this defeat and she advanced to World Number 15 that year.
Marion Bartoli managed to reach the quarterfinals at her last tournament, the 2011 BMW Malaysian Open, after defeating Ekaterina Ivanova in the second round. She lost the quarterfinal match to Lucie Safarova.
World Number 18 Maria Sharapova
Former World Number 1 Maria Sharapova of Russia has had extremely disappointing experiences with the BNP Paribas Open in the last two years. She took part in the doubles tournament in 2009 with Elena Vesnina, but chose to keep
out of the singles tournament due to health-related reasons. She was unable to make much headway in the doubles draw either, losing in the first round.
Next year, she participated in the singles draw of the 2010 BNP Paribas Open. She made it to the third round of the tournament before falling to Zheng Jie. She also aggravated an injured elbow during the tournament, which contributed
to her withdrawal from the next Premier Mandatory event, the Sony Ericsson Open. She also gave up a spot at the Family Circle Cup.
Recently, Sharapova has been performing exceptionally poorly. She lost to Virginie Razzano at the Fed Cup, and withdrew from her next tournament (the Open GDF Suez in France) due to viral sickness suffered in Russia. She was also
forced to withdraw from the Dubai Championships because of an ear infection. If her past performance is anything to go by, the player will probably not make progress at this event.
Tags: