Marion Bartoli – Top Seed at Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions 2011
World number nine and top seeded Frenchwoman will make her one last appearance in the 2011 season as she puts in her second appearance at the 2011 Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali, Indonesia in the first week of November leading a field of seven elite players.
Playing in only in its third year, the Bali event is a ‘consolation’ prize for all those players who won at least one title in the season but failed to qualify for the season finale championships at Istanbul.
Barely missing the cut for the Istanbul championships this year, Bartoli enters Bali as the top seed with two title wins under her belt and some amazing wins in the season.
Starting the year ranked 16th in the world, Bartoli has only climbed up the rankings ladder this year. With semi-final losses to Andrea Petkovic and Caroline Wozniacki at Brisbane and Doha respectively, Bartoli’s first final appearance of the season came at Indian Wells where she made it all the way to the final dropping only one set in the process bowing out only to Wozniacki in the title match.
Loss at Indian Wells saw a string of early round exits for the Frenchwoman as she suffered several early round exits. The Frenchwoman eventually bounced back in Strasbourg where she enjoyed yet another final run though she once more fell short of the title win. Despite leading the set score, Bartoli had to retire from the match due to an injury handing over a title win to German, Andrea Petkovic.
Despite an unsuccessful final run at Strasbourg, Bartoli managed to hone her clay skills for the Roland Garros as she enjoyed a semi-final run at the Grand Slam event. Recording wins over Julia Goerges, Gisela Dulko and Svetlana Kuznetsova, Bartoli fell in the last four to eventual runner up, Francesca Schiavone - a marvellous finish for the Frenchwoman to an otherwise mediocre clay season.
Coming closer to home, Bartoli was in full form for the grass courts. Defeating Petra Kvitova at Eastbourne in the final, Bartoli clinched her first title win of the season before a semi-final showing at Wimbledon where she lost to Sabine Lisicki. Enroute to the final four, Bartoli had recorded a stupendous win over former world number one, Serena Williams.
Bartoli’s hard court run was as tumultuous as her clay court swing. After an unsuccessful final showing at Stanford where she lost to Serena Williams, Bartoli suffered several early round exits with one quarterfinal appearance at Tokyo. However, the hard courts of Asia proved to be lucky for the Frenchwoman as she won her second title of the season. Defeating the 2011 US Open Champion, Samantha Stosur in the final; Bartoli clinched the HP Open title and a berth in the Bali event.
In only her second showing at Bali this year, Bartoli debuted in the year end championships here in its inaugural session in 2009. Unseeded then, Bartoli enjoyed wins over Shahar Peer of Israel, Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova and Japanese Kimiko Date-Krumm to move into the final of the event where she failed to clinch the title losing to Aravane Rezai.
However, a reformed and refocused Bartoli hopes to go one step further this time around. As the top seed, the Frenchwoman has a very good chance of closing out the season with a title win.
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