2011 Sony Ericsson Open WTA Part 13: Marion Bartoli and Maria Sharapova
World Number 10 Marion Bartoli
Marion Bartoli is a French tennis player, who is currently ranked World Number 10. The right-handed pro joined the Women’s Tennis Association in 2000, and has been part of the professional circuit for over eleven years. Her highest
ranking is World Number 9, which she reached in 2007, and she has won a total of five WTA singles titles.
The 26-year-old player posted great results at her first appearance in the 2003 Miami tournament, entering the event as a qualifier and defeating Ally Baker, Evie Dominikovic and Maria Lorenzo Sanchez to reach the fourth round
against seventh seed Lindsay Davenport. The French pro surprised fans by taking the first set against the American legend with a bagel, after which Davenport retired from the match. Bartoli’s run at the tournament was stopped by American top seed Serena Williams
in the quarterfinals.
The French player was unable to reproduce similar results till last year, when she was seeded thirteenth at the tournament. Bartoli received a bye into the second round, where she ousted Slovak pro Magdalena Rybarikova to take
on Argentine’s Gisela Dulko in the third round. She scored an easy victory over the player and went on to defeat first seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and Yanina Wickmayer in the fourth round and quarterfinal respectively. She was defeated in the semi-finals by Venus
Williams.
This year, fifteenth seed Bartoli has made it to the fourth round of the tournament after defeating Ayumi Morita and Ekaterina Makarova. She will be playing against third seed Vera Zvonareva in the fourth round.
World Number 13 Maria Sharapova
Former World Number 1 Maria Sharapova has risen five spots on the WTA rankings this week, improving from last week’s position as World Number 18. The pro, who currently resides in Florida, has been part of the Women’s Tennis Association
since 2001 and is one of the best Russian players to emerge from the country.
Sharapova made a weak debut at the tournament in 2003, entering the tournament as a wildcard and falling to Belarusian pro Els Callens in the first round. She was ranked World Number 166 at this time. However, she improved significantly
over the next few years and managed to reach the title match of the tournament in both 2005 and 2006. At the 2005 Sony Ericsson Open, she was ranked World Number 3 and fell to Belgian pro Kim Clijsters in the race for the title. The next year, she managed
to make it to the final as the fourth seed before falling to Russian pro Svetlana Kuznetsova. She has not participated in the tournament for three years.
Maria Sharapova is seeded sixteenth at this year’s Sony Ericsson Open, and has made it to the fourth round of the tournament after defeating Petra Martic and Sabine Lisicki in her first two matches. She will be facing Australian
pro Samantha Stosur in her next match.
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